Unlikely Ally
by Crystal RoseWing
Summary: When Molly saves a young alien from drowning she gains a new friend and ally, and Jordan gets his worst nightmare ever... bad summary story better... Thank you for the Title! Currently Being Rewritten, will be reposted as a new updated story
1. Meet Altair

**OKAY THIS IS MY FIRST OBAN STAR RACERS FIC EVER NOT SURE WHEN I CAN UPDATE DUE TO EXTREME COMPUTER TROUBLE…. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW I PROMISE IT WILL GET BETTER!**

**Chapter 1**

**Meet Altair**

"The night sky is beautiful." Eva AKA Molly noted sitting out by the lake and staring up at the stars; it truly was a breathtaking sight to behold. It reminded her of all the times she and her mother and father used to sit outside and stare into the night sky and look at the stars….. those were some of the best memories she had, but now she sat alone outside wishing things hadn't changed. As she continued to watch she noticed that now shooting stars had begun to dance across the sky, one looked like one was actually falling towards her.

It took a minute to register that it really **WAS** falling towards her!

Of course now Molly had the common sense to get out of the way, (Hell who wouldn't!) and standing a ways back watched as something fairly large crashed into the lake with a thunderous Boom! Her natural curiosity immediately took over and she ran over to the water edge and peered at what exactly had just crashed. Much to her great surprise she found that it wasn't an asteroid but an alien ship… That was rapidly sinking into the lake. The lake may not look it but Molly knew that in places it was at least 125 feet deep, deeper in other areas…. More than deep enough to completely overtake the craft due to its somewhat small size, as well as anyone stuck inside it….

That's when she heard it…. The sound of some banging around like some animal caught in a trap, as well as a very soft sound…

"H-Help…. Somebody please (cough, cough) Help!" It was so soft and muffeled that it was barely audible.

A cold grip formed in Molly's chest, someone was trapped inside that ship! Why wasn't anyone else outside to see what had made that loud crash? Was she the only one who heard it? Now she only had two options….. run and find some help, but by then it may be to late for whoever was trapped inside…. Or dive in and see what she could do.

Needless to say which one she chose.

The water was like ice against her skinny body as she swam over to the now almost completely submerged craft. Holding her breath she dove down and found the ships door handle and felt it was jammed, but sill she continued for what felt like an hour to her to try to get it open. Finally it budged the swung forcefully open.

She nearly lost all her remaining oxygen when she felt something grab onto her, but soon realized that the alien who had been trapped had grabbed her, not as in an attempt to harm her but as in it needed help to get to the surface. Which Molly was grateful whoever it was wasn't very heavy.

Finally Molly made it after she had felt for a moment there that her lungs were gonna pop. The alien upon reaching the surface slid off Molly's back and weakly swam to shore that was thankfully only a few feet away otherwise it would have sank right back under the water again. Whoever it was, was definitely not a good swimmer…

Molly swam back to shore, stood up and began to ring out her soaking wet hair when a very soft voice got her attention.

"T-Thank you…. (cough) I thought that was the end of me…"

The alien had walked up behind her, and startled her he wasn't very tall just barely up to Molly's shoulder he had an elaborately decorated helmet that completely hid his face and he had what looked like a deep blue armor based suit on and was carrying a medium sized backpack on his shoulders…. He couldn't have possibly been over 9 years old….

"Hey no big deal,… so who are you anyway?" Molly asked

"My name is Altair, it's nice to meet you." His voice was cheerful as he undid his helmet and took it off and his ears unfurled.

His very large spike black ears, attached to a completely black head with a pair of glowing yellow eyes……

Molly wasn't quite sure what to do now, she wanted to scream bloody murder or run as fast as she could as far away as possible, but in spite of everything her brain was screaming she was frozen to the spot where she stood unable to move an inch.

The alien she had just saved was a 9 year old Crog…


	2. Not so bad

CHAPTER 2

Not so bad

Molly just stood there staring. Completely numb to the rest of the world, while her body was motionless her mind was trying to process everything at 160mph.

"A Crog! A Crog! Oh shit a Crog!" Molly mentally shrieked while the young Crog looked around at the landscape then back to her.

"What's your name?" Altair asked snapping Molly back from her thoughts, enabling her to get her first good look at him.

He was pretty small, and his ears looked too big for him. He wore armor like Toros without the massive shoulder plates and it was a dark blue around the sides and a lighter blue in the chest and stomach.

"Molly…. My name is Molly."

He said nothing for a moment but stood there for a moment looking at her with curiosity.

"Are you a human?"

"Uh….. yeah." Molly answered suspiciously; apparently he had never seen a human before.

"I thought so but you don't look quite as freaky as the way they described you in school."

"Uh, thanks?" Molly said not quite sure if that was a complement.

"Um…" he muttered a little lost for anything else to say. Sadly just as he looked back at Molly she was remembering her first encounter with Toros and she leered at him a little making him flinch a little and his ears droop in sadness.

"…I'm sorry to have bothered you…. I'll leave." He said sadly and turned to walk away when Molly came to her senses realizing exactly how shallow it is to hold a little kid responsible for the actions of his race.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to seem shallow. It's just that my experience with Crogs hasn't exactly been…. good."

"I understand…. Many of the teachers as well as my classmates were really mean to me for most of my life…. But… I don't think we're all bad….. I don't think…so."

Molly smiled at him, he seemed cute and docile like any little kid does….. but still he is a Crog.

"If you'd like I could take you to the Crog pit…. They'd probably take care of you there." Molly said but seriously doubted Toros could take care of another living thing if his life depended on it.

A look of pure horror crossed Altair's face "No! No nononononononononono! An infinitely bad idea!" he shrieked totally freaking out at the idea.

Molly took a step back, a little shocked by his sudden outburst. "Sorry but I just thought tha-" but was cut off by Altair.

"If I go see any adult Crogs they'll send me back to my boarding school! I hated it there! It took me 5 years to escape! I can't go back!" he said almost on the verge of tears.

Molly blinked "You went to a boarding school?"

Altair nodded. "A military style boarding school since I was 4 right after my mother..." he stopped short apparently hitting a tender spot.

Molly was silent for a minute knowing this story all to well…

"Your mother died didn't she?" Molly said solomly

Altair looked at her, "How'd you know?"

"Been there my mom died 10 years ago and my dad sent me to a boarding school for 10 long years…. Never wrote, never called….. he doesn't even know I exist."

"Déjà vu,.' Altair said then his expression became bright and cheerful. "Wow were really not all that different after all!"

Molly smiled, he was a cute little kid then she sighed knowing she was gonna hate herself for this later.

"Would you like to stay with me in the earth pit?" Molly asked

Altair looked stunned "You'd let me stay with you? For real? Even though I'm a Crog?"

"Yeah, I'd-" but was cut off when Altair latched onto her in a bear hug

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" he squeaked and let go of her.

"Molly sweatdroped for a little kid he was really strong."

Slowly they began to walk back to the earth pit (BE AWARE THAT IS PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE SO MOLLY CAN JUST BARELY SEE WHERE SHE'S GOING)

"Watch out for that-" Altair warned

"Oww!"

"To late…"

( A FEW SECONDS LATER)

"Watch out for that low branch!"

"Where- Ouch!"

"Warned you."

Molly growled in aggravation "How do you see so well in the dark!"

"Crogs night vision is unsurpassed in the entire galaxy pitch blackness is still like daylight to us,… I heard that humans are yet to develop a night scope half as good as our night vision."

A few minutes later they made it to the earth team pit. And quietly they snuck up to Molly's room by the sheer grace of God no one had to come out of their rooms.

"Okay we're safe now where will you slee-" Molly was cut off when not even two seconds in the room Altair had curled up on the floor using his backpack as a pillow was sound asleep

Someone was tired Molly chuckeled and draped a blanket over him and laid down in her own bed. Just as she was about to doze off she heard it a deep thrumming noise coming from Altair.

Molly nearly had a giggle fit when she realized what it was…

"Who knew Crogs purr?"


	3. Busted!

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED MY STORIES SO FAR

I CAN ONLY TYPE THIS STORY DURING SCHOOL SO DON'T GET TO UPSET

BY LACK OF UPDATES. AND SOON MY GOOD FRIEND WILL BE GETTING AN ACCOUNT HERE SOON AND SHE WILL BE USING A FEW OF MY CHARACTERS IN HER STORIES AND HER STORIES ARE REALLY REALLY REALLY INFANATELY GOOD SO WHEN SHE GETS THEM UP PEASE READ AND REVIEW THEM THEY ARE FUNNY AS HELL IF YOU ENJOY READING THEM HALF AS MUCH AS WE ENJOY THINKING THEM UP YOU'LL BE ON THE GROUND ROLLING IN SIDE SPLITTING LAUGHTER.

Chapter 3

Busted!

"Jordan! Jordan! Get down here!" Don Wei called up the stairs.

"Uh yes sir." Jordan said coming out of his room

"Jordan, Stan, Koji, Rick, and myself are going out to see if we can get any more parts to boost the Arrows performance in the next race. Will you please wake Molly up now?" Don Wei instructed as they walked out the door.

"Oh sure give me the dangerous job…" Jordan muttered under his breath as he opened Molly's door. It was completely black inside and he couldn't actually see anything.

"Molly time to wake u- Ahh!" Jordan began but he was coming inside Molly's room to attempt to find the light switch but fell full force on something Molly had left on the floor.

"Jordan are you… uh,… oh no!" as the thoughts of what probably just happened clicked into her mind.

"What the heck did I just fall on?" Jordan said feeling whatever it was moving underneath him.

"Ahhh you're crushing me! You're crushing me! Get off me fatso!" The muffled voice of Altair rang through their ears. Just as Molly opened the window letting sunshine into the room……

….And Jordan got a very good look at what he had landed on.

…..Lets just say you could hear the screaming all the way at the bar in town….

"Jordan stop it! Leave him alone! He's just a little kid! Jordan!" Molly screamed as Jordan was currently lifting Altair up by the front of his armor.

"Yeah quit it I didn't do anything to you!" Altair noted staying surprisingly calm for the fact of he was being held a good two feet off the ground.

"A Crog is a Crog is a Crog, Molly, he may be small now but he'll grow up to be just as big and as evil as the rest of his murderous race! Anyway why the hell did you even bring him here! He's probably plotting to kill you and the rest of us right now!" Jordan snapped.

Altair's response was very, very simple…. He responded to this possibly the same way any other little kid in his current position would be expected to respond…..

He bit Jordan's hand…..

"Yeow!" Jordan wailed dropping Altair allowing him to scramble next to Molly while Jordan looked at his hand as though making sure it wouldn't fall off. Then set his sights back on Altair who glared right back his gold eyes glowing angrily.

"You really are DUMB! We are NOT evil! I'm not gonna hurt ANYBODY! Let alone my BIG SISTER!" Altair snapped back at Jordan.

There was a long pause both Molly and Jordan really trying to absorb what Altair just said.

"Ummm… Molly…. What were your parents?" Jordan reluctantly asked and Molly gave him the "Jeeze how much of an idiot are you?" look.

"I'm…. your big sister?" Molly asked

"Yep-yep! You're nice, you let me stay with you, and you saved my life, all perfect big sister qualities! Plus as a bonus you don't snore in your sleep unlike my old 22 roommates who slept like the dead and snored like the sirens were going off, and they laughed at me cause I purr in my sleep, but I can't help it!"

"You purr?" Jordan said skeptically

"Yes I can't help it…. Guess it's because I often dream about my family…. When we're newborns we don't open our eyes until our third month. We bond with our parents through purring, no two Crogs sound alike when we purr so we bond with the sound our parents make until we're old enough to see them."

"Like cats." Molly noted

"What's a cat?"

"Never mind that." Jordan butted in "He's not staying here!"

"Oh yes he is!" Molly snapped "Where else would he go?"

"To the Crog pit where he belongs!"

"We can't send him there! Do you think Toros can keep a plastic plant alive let alone Altair! Not a chance!"

"So what! That would be just one less Crog to deal with in the future! Good ridence!"

"What is your problem Jordan! He's just a little kid!"

"Crogs killed my father!" Jordan snapped at Molly who stood there stunned for a minute.

"I-I'm sorry Jordan I didn't know-"

"That's not your problem Molly but still you can't keep him here someone will find out!"

"No one will find out Jordan…. Look whatever problems you have with Crogs Altair is just a little kid and had nothing to do with it! Don't hold a grudge against him…. And please don't tell anyone! I promise he won't be any trouble I'll make sure of it!... please Jordan?" She said and gave him "The look"

"Oh great "The Look" Jordan thought to himself and sighed "Fine I won't tell but…. Hey where is he?" Jordan noted looking around Altair had disappeared. But a loud crash coming from… oh no.

"He better not be in my room!" Jordan snapped as the moved to his room only to note that Altair was nearly buried under five heavy duffel bags filled to the brim….. with candy?

"Jordan what is all this?" Molly said looking at all the candy all over the floor

"My stash…. What you expect that I've been living off that stuff D.W cooks? Think again!"

"Um…. Uh-oh" Molly noted that Altair had just eaten a choclate bar from Jordan's bag and his normally bright gold eyes had become bright gold spirals.

"YAHHHOOOO" Altair screamed and proceeded to run over Jordan out the door and run vertically up the wall in the pit area where the Arrow was stored.

Molly and Jordan looked at each other and sweatdropped.

Sugar was definitely a big no-no….


	4. Bar fight!

Chapter 4

Bar fight!

For a half an hour Jordan and Molly watched as Altair literally defied gravity by running around in circles…. On the ceiling. Before he suddenly stopped and fell onto one of the horizontal support beams with a thud.

"Whew that stuff sure packs a punch!" Altair noted catching his breath then looking down at Molly and Jordan. "Hello!" he called from the rafter he was sitting on.

"Hello!" said another voice from right next to Molly and Jordan causing them both to jump a little in shock and stare at Setis.

"Uh, Setis!...uh…. we can explain!" Molly stuttered and Setis looked at Molly.

"Hello Molly, is this a friend of yours?" Setis asked kindly

"Well uh, yeah but-"

"Come down here young Crog!" Setis called up to Altair

"How are we gonna get him dow-" Jordan began but Altair simply jumped down….. from a well over 89 foot drop…. Like it was no big deal.

"So what's your name young Crog?" Seits asked

"Altair, what's your name?"

"Seits, may I say that you certainly are a lot politer than most of the other Crogs I have met." He said politely and Altair's ears drooped

"My kind can be pretty mean at times….but I still think there is some good in them…" Altair said, and suddenly a loud growling sound got everyone's attention, and Altair rubbed the back of his head embarrassed.

"Sorry… my stomach's been empty for awhile." He said sheepishly. This was a problem Molly had forgotten about, but Jordan looked very pleased.

"He can eat the left over meat surprise Don Wei made!"

"No Jordan, were not gonna poison him to death with that crap…. We'll take him to the bar in town, the food there is way better then that shit Don Wei tries to poison us with."

"Oh sure were just gonna walk inside a crowded building? 2 humans and shorty here? Oh yeah that's real smart." Jordan said sarcastically as Molly pondered this.

"Hey Jor-dumb don't call me short!" Altair snapped and no one except Setis noticed Molly go upstairs into one of the closets.

"What did you just call me!" Jordan snapped

"You heard me Jor-dumb!" Altair growled

"Don't make me come down there!" Jordan growled back looking down at Altair

"Jordan don't call him short and stop matching wits with a 9 year old, it's just sad." Molly said coming downstairs with a bundle in here arms.

"I've solved our problem also!" she said happily and placed a cloak over Altair's head pulled it's hood over his ears and part of his face, and placed a pair of red goggles over his eyes. "Ta-Da!" she said and Jordan burst out laughing at the sheer sight of it.

"I feel ridiculous…" Altair said in a muffled voice from behind the cloak and watching Jordan rolling on the floor in a fit of laughter.

"Hmmmm….." Setis said stroking his beard. "I may have another option but it will take me awhile to find it though…. I'll come find you when I have it." He said to Molly behind her back and disappeared just as quickly as she turned around.

"Come on Molly there is no way that that disguise is gonna work…." Jordan said trying very hard not to burst out laughing again.

(LATER)

"I can't believe that this is working!" Jordan growled walking behind Molly and Altair as they walked through the busy streets and came to the bar only to be stopped by Setis before they could go in.

"Hello again." He said happily "I've found something that may work a little better than your current disguise."

"What is it?" Molly noted spying something in Setis hands but he motioned them into the nearby alley way.

"Please take your cloak off Altair." Setis asked

"No problem this thing's way to big for me anyway." Altair said taking the heavy cloak off.

"And put this on." Setis said handing Altair another cloak. He looked at it reluctantly then slipped it over his head. Only to have Molly and Jordan gasp in shock.

Altair had now the appearance of a human boy about his age with long black hair, very pale skin, and green eyes.

"Whoa, that's freaky!" Altair said looking in the mirror Setis had pulled out of no where.

"Being able to see your own mouth move and everything…. Weird." Altair shuddered

"Setis where did you get this?" Molly asked

"I- (cough) I mean the Avatar has many of these cloaks that serve no purpose imparticular so he gave me it in order to get rid of some of the junk he has laying around his den." Setis answered "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go speak with an… acquaintance of mine goodbye." Molly blinked and he was gone.

"…Creepy." She muttered and the trio walked inside the bar.

(Later)

"Mmmm…. That's the best meal I've had in five years!" Altair said happily finishing his meal and feeding the bar tender/cooks ego.

"Boarding school food suck where you come from to?" Molly asked sipping the milk she had ordered. Altair shuddered at the memory.

"GRRROOOOOORRRRR!" the all too familiar roar that announced Groor's arrival interrupted their conversation…. Causing them to wheel around and sadly (For Molly anyway) get flung hard into the wall.

"The Narasian brat isn't here to save you now! You are now at Groor's mercy!" He roared and picked Molly up by her neck.

"Didn't getting your ass kicked once wasn't enough was it!" Jordan roared and succeeded in getting clocked by Groor flinging Molly into him and sending them both flying into the wall.

"Leave my sister and Jor-dumb alone!" Altair snapped and stood in front of Molly and Jordan.

"One so puny wishes to fight Groor! Die little fool!" Groor roared and swung his arms at Altair and just for a split second Altair's instincts took over…. Instincts of fighting wisdom and knowledge that were entombed into his very being and they blocked out his conscious mind completely….. and for a single terrifying moment in Groor's life felt fear when he saw the kid's green eyes turn bright yellow….. like a Crog warriors eyes.

Altair caught Groor's arm and held it, then with strength his kind were known for swung him with such force that Groor went literally through the wall and outside and crashed to the ground.

"Molly?" said a voice that caught Molly's attention from what she just witnessed.

"P-Prince Aikka!" Molly said as he walked in and went immediately to her side and helped her up…. His eyes landed on Altair with a questioning and surprised look.

Altair turned around dumbstruck.

"Did I do that?"


	5. Memories

HELLO THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED MY STORY SO FAR! AS FOR MY GRAMMER, SORRY I HAVE TO SPEED TYPE THIS AT SCHOOL AND I SOMETIMES… OKAY ALMOST ALL THE TIME FORGET TO CHECK THAT STUFF I WILL WORK ON CORRECTING THAT. OKAY HERE'S CHAPTER 5!

Chapter 5

Memories

Altair needless to say was nothing short of freaked out. Well wouldn't you be? He just remembered Groor swinging at him, and after that it was all a blur. Well that hole in the wall and the people cheering and staring at him weren't blurry; this whole situation was really, really, freaky. Jordan grabbed Altair and led him out of the bar and out into a wooded area nearby but pretty much out of the way of any passer-byers… Jordan looked really pissed.

"What the hell was that!" Jordan growled at Altair who backed up and looked down sadly.

"I have no idea what happened! I don't even remember moving! Let alone throwing that idiot through the wall! Honest!" Altair screamed but Jordan wasn't convinced. Just as he was about to say something mean to Altair, Aikka cut in.

"So who are you? I don't believe we have met, are you a different class of Earthling? Of the warrior class perhaps?"

Altair looked at Aikka for a minute puzzled, then realized he still had his cloak on. "Oh no, I'm a Cro-" but was silenced quickly by Jordan clapping his hands over his mouth.

"You idiot don't go blabbing! He'll tell those monsters and we'll all die!" Jordan snapped and Altair leered at him due to the reference of "Monsters" in describing his kind.

"Molly care to enlighten me on what is going on?" Aikka asked looking at Molly who sighed and put her hand on her forehead. "This is getting outta control." She thought sadly

"Well Aikka… um, he's well,… uh, he's a-" Molly started but Jordan interrupted fuming mad!

"No! No way! No how! Not gonna happen! I forbid it! We're not gonna tell him!" Jordan fumed letting Altair slip out of his grasp as he leered at Aikka.

"Jordan come off it! He might be able to help us!" Molly growled back at Jordan.

"Yeah, help us get killed that is! He'd rat us out to the damn Crogs! The Naurasians are the Crogs lap dogs!"

"What is going on!" Aikka butted in "What is such a terrible thing that you can't trust me-"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Altair said and ripped off his cloak and changed back to his true form. "I'm a Crog!"

There was nothing short of a stunned silence between the group. Aikka's jaw had dropped and his eyes were wide in disbelief, Molly looked very nervous to say the least, and Jordan was furious.

"You just doomed us all! Great! The Crogs are gonna kill us once princy here blabs! Molly I told you that having him around was a bad idea! How are you gonna fix this huh!"

"Hey leave my sister alone Jor-dumb!" Altair snapped. Making Aikka look at molly questioningly. "Molly are you part Crog?" he asked.

"No I'm not part Crog!" Molly growled feeling a headache coming on. "Aikka please don't tell anyone!" Molly added nervously

"Perhaps you could please explain to me how he even got to you?" Aikka stated curiously and Molly began right from the beginning…. While Jordan and Altair got into another argument…..(cough)Altair winning(cough)

(ABOUT AN HOUR LATER)

"So that's it huh… well I will not say a word to anyone. However there is something concerning me…. You say he's stated his mother has died….. has he mentioned his father at all?" Aikka said worriedly. Molly gulped. Crap she hadn't thought of that! What would happen if a pissed off adult male Crog came looking for Altair? What would happen to her and her friends? Why hadn't she thought of that earlier?

"Altair could you-" Molly started but then noticed Altair was on Jordans back yanking at his hair and biting his ear! (Poor Jordan) But upon hearing Molly calling him released Jordan and hopped off his back.

"Y-You! You…. You… You Crog!" Jordan Stammered angrily

"My how observant of you…" Altair replied sarcasticly rolling his large gold eyes "Yes Molly?"

"Altair would your father come looking for you since you escaped your boarding school?" Molly asked nervously. Altairs ears drooped as though he had been struck.

"He probably doesn't care…. I don't even remember him, what he looks like how his voice sounds…. All I remember is well his purr… that's all I remember.

All of a sudden Altair felt as though a knife ripped through his head he felt pain searing through his whole body almost blinding him he screamed and grabbed his head and fell to the ground the pain made him lose consciousness but not before memories ripped through his mind.

…….fire was everywhere….

……A voice was screaming….. that voice….. the darkest cruelest sound it made…..

….. "Where is it! Where is the Jewel of Heaven! Tell me!...

….. another voice…..his mothers voice…..

…. Damn you to hell! You will never possess the power of the gods! My blood will be your downfall! Death to you our false Emporer!...

……. Then all that was heard was screaming…..

…….and the memories of a pair of glowing yellow eyes…..

….ears like giant devil horns……

….. and that cruel evil laugh…

Then Altair lost consiousness…


	6. Mysterious Beings

Chapter 6

Mysterious Beings…

"Oh…. My head is killing me…" Altair muttered finally coming around still surrounded by Molly, Jordan, and Aikka. Molly sighed in relief.

"Thank God you're ok! You've been out cold for three hours! I thought that you'd died!" Molly said and helped Altair to stand up… "What the hell happened?"

Altair was silent then after a few minutes he spoke almost as though he had forgotten they were standing next to him.… "I can't remember…. But I know… I know it was something very important. Something I'm supposed to remember but I just can't! How vexing!...wait….. It was something about…" Altair paused and looked at the group.

"Have any of you ever heard of the Jewel of Heaven?" Altair asked the trio who just looked at each other then they all shook their heads no. Altair just rubbed the back of his head. "It was something about that…. And uh, that's all I remember." Altair said glumly but his expression quickly changed to his normal expression. "Oh well can't help what ya' can't remember! What next sis!"

"You are nothing but trouble…." Jordan muttered under his breath getting a glare from Altair.

"You're more trouble than I am!" Altair snapped

"Wait you heard me?" Jordan said surprised

"My ears ain't just for decoration you goof…"

"Watch it short stuff or I'll use you as target practice!" Jordan retaliated

"You probably couldn't hit the broadside of a Trident! Goofball!"

"Isn't it sad when you need to argue with a child…. Who's winning at that." Aikka commented.

"I like you." Altair said looking towards Aikka. "You seem to at least have an I.Q., unlike Jor-dumb here."

"That's it! Come here you pipsqueak!" Jordan roared and lunged at Altair…it happened in slow motion, all Altair remembered was Jordan coming at him and then his instincts took over and he kicked Jordans legs out from under him, then jumping up and slamming his fist into Jordans back making him do a face plant in the ground and Altair landed with a soft thud on a totally winded Jordans back.

"Jordan are you ok!" Molly asked shocked at both what Altair did and how fast he did it.

"No! No! No! I am not ok! There is a pintsized Crog on back! There is nothing ok with that!"

"Ok this is getting ridiculous." Altair muttered "I don't even remember moving! That's twice in the same day! What's worse that's something I would LIKE to remember!"

"Why you little….uh, never mind….. just get the hell off my back!" Jordan snapped angrily getting up causing Altair to fall off his back. "You see Molly; this is exactly why keeping him around is a bad idea!"

"Jor-…" Molly started but stopped abruptly feeling a chill work its way up her spine… the feeling of being watched. It was that unpleasant feeling of knowing that eyes are looking at you even though you can't see them. Apparently Aikka felt it too because he began to unsheathe his dagger and look quickly at the area around them, as though hopeing to spot any faint movement to announce where whatever was watching them was. Altair however just closed his eyes and stood as still as a statue.

"_Drown out all distractions… focus on the sounds around you, listen to everything… see with your ears instead of your eyes…. And try to find me." _Those words suddenly rang through Altairs ears….Words of a long forgotten memory… Altair remembered that day… and who had taught him.

….He heard something…

"There!" Altair said pointing to the shrubbery directly behind him. "There's someone there!"

Jordan was the first to react. He dove into the bush, and two seconds later was flew out of the shrubs for about 30 feet and landed in a crumpled heap completely unconscious.

"Whoever is there, show yourself!" Aikka yelled and then there was silence then something…. Like a low muffled voice, so low that it was just barely audible.

"No… not yet… you're safe for now, that is all that matters…" that was all that was heard before something burst from the shrubs… all that could be seen was a form was a black hooded cloak moving at an incredibly fast speed, no face was visible. And just as quickly as it appeared it disappeared leaving Molly, Altair, and Aikka very freaked out.

"What was that all about?" Molly asked and Aikka shrugged. "I don't know, but I get the feeling somebody else knows about our young friend's presence here…" Aikka said gravely, and Molly paled. This whole situation was becoming more and more complex, not to mention dangerous. Could she continue to protect Altair and keep her friends safe? What the heck, who the heck was that? What else could go wrong?

Altair was completely silent for a little while his large gold eyes staring at where the form had been.

"Could it be you?" he whispered silently to himself and then turned around to face Molly and Aikka. "I think we better get outta here… before whatever that was comes back."

"Altair… do you have any idea what that was?" Aikka asked. Altair just shook his head no.

"It is getting pretty late we should be getting back to the pit before Don Wei has another hissy fit…" Molly said sadly as Jordan woke up.

"Grrrr! Sucker punch me you freak I've got you now!" Jordan roared standing up and looking around only to have everyone else sweatdrop at him.

"Remind me why he's with us." Altair muttered rubbing the back of his head.

**(Meanwhile)**

Standing on a nearby cliff a form eclipsed by the setting sun and by a long black cloak, watched as Altair was chased around in a circle by the one called Jordan then hid behind the groups female her name it didn't know.

"You gonna introduce yourself any time soon?" a second form also hidden by a cloak said coming up behind the first one the voice was clearly a female, and it's arm was visible or at least its arm in a sling was visable.

"Not yet…. He's safe now, and he's learning how to use his instincts. He doesn't need me yet…" the first form muttered this one was male.

"I thought this was the most important thing in the world to you?" The female asked

"More than you know…. But still…" he muttered watching as the group parted ways and returned to their pits and even at a distance he could see the surprised look on the humans faces when Altair jumped onto the roof of their pit and then sneak in through the window. "I will wait…. And watch."

"I swear you're so cute when you act all calm and serious." The female giggled

The male sweatdroped "Do I ever act half as crazy as you Rain?"

"No Wraith I can't say you have, I can't say you have."


	7. Oh Boy! Part 1

SORRY FOR THE CRAPPINESS OF THIS CHAPTER'S RACE SCENE… I WILL DEFIANTELY WORK ON FIXING IT…. I PROMISE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE BETTER.

Chapter 7

Oh, Boy! Part 1

(ABOUT 5 WEEKS LATER)

The sun was shining in through the window of the Molly's room in the Earth team pit. And the sunshine woke her up and she smiled brightly. "Today's gonna be a great day!" she thought happily and sat up in her bed only to notice Altair was missing.

"Now where did he-" Molly started but then quickly remembered and ducked just as Altair flew over her head and landed next to her. "Good morning Sis! You're quick, but I'll get you tomorrow!" He chuckled he had recently developed the habit of tackling her just as she woke up with his little hugs**…(They weren't so little though, the last one nearly made her lungs pop…) ** So she had wizened up and had to duck quickly or else get crushed…. A new game the two of them played now.

Molly chuckled "You'll never catch me!" and rubbed his head making him giggle. Another interesting trait that she had never thought of… Apparently Altair's ears were extremely soft… whether that was just Altair or it was true for all his kind Molly didn't know (And wasn't about to waltz up to Toros and ask to pet his ears to find out.) and she had also truly grown to view Altair as more a part of her family in these few weeks than her father, Don Wei had been in 10 long years! Yes… it had been a great few weeks. And today was gonna be another good day.

"So what's up today big sister?" Altair inquired getting up.

"We have a race today, you gonna watch?"

"Do I ever not?" Altair questioned. And it was true, whenever they had a race Altair would sneak out through the window in Molly's room and jump off the roof, sit in the grandstands and watch the race with either Aikka or Rush.

Speaking of which, how Altair met Rush was an interesting story… Molly and Jordan had gone to see Rush when he got out of the hospital after his… incident with Toros and they had brought Altair along. Naturally Rush was very nice to them and Altair was very nice to him. But when Altair had asked how Rush had got hurt in the first place… well Rush had told him about his planet, Byruss and how the Crogs had wrecked it and he also mentioned how every Crog should burn in hell. Altair had been so upset that he literally ran out crying. They explained the basic situation to Rush, who was skeptical about a young Crog staying with the Earth team, but Molly convinced him that Altair was harmless. Of course Rush, also helped them look for Altair when they discovered he was gone. They must've searched for him for at least 4 hours and they almost gave up, until Molly got an idea where he might be… and sure enough there he was….

Altair had been trying to retrieve Rush's pickaxe…

He must've been climbing for hours. Claw marks lined the pillar and he'd been driving his nails into the pillar… injuring himself in the process. When he got the pickaxe free however he lost his grip on the wall and fell… the memory still confused Molly… that shadow thing,…. the creature in the cloak caught him in mid air, and landed on the ground Altair in it's arm…. Its other arm appeared to be in a sling of some sorts… and just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone again without saying anything. It moved so quickly it was almost as though it could fly…. But it never actually flew though…

Anyway, Altair's hands were soaked in blood, but he just walked up to Rush and gave him back his pickaxe saying: "I'm sorry about everything that's happened to you and your planet…. When I was really, really little… a newborn of three months, actually I opened my eyes for the first time on Byruss… all I remember was field after field of beautiful flowers. I… I… I'm sorry… but not…. Not all Crogs are bad… I don't think we are….really." Well, Rush saw what Molly had talked about…. About Altair having a good heart. And he grew to like Altair. As for Altair's hands, it stunned Molly and Jordan how quickly they healed. 5 days later the wounds had completely healed, not even leaving a scar.

"You better get going Sis; I'll be rooting for you!" Altair said grabing his cloak and hoping out the window and running to the stadium, where Aikka was looking for him.

"I was wondering what was keeping you… usually you're the first one here." Aikka said as Altair came up to him.

"Had to wait for big sister to wake up." Altair said following Aikka to their seats in the stands.

"We now call forth the Earth Team!"

"How's Molly today?" Aikka asked Altair who shrugged

"Seemed fine to me… Why?"

"Just curious." Aikka said quickly.

"We now call forth Korobast! From Uzanga!"

Altair blinked a few times in shock "A Uzangarian?! Those guys are known for being dirty fighters!" Altair said looking at the ship positioned next to the Arrow. It was a large, black ironed, and looked like it was a giant mechanical spider, with four huge thruster engines on each side, and five blades were well pronounced on either side of the craft just above the engines, and right on the top was one **BIG** cannon. One large window that exposed the pilot inside, he was a large arachnid looking alien with three large gold eyes, one he was apparently blind in, and had four very muscular blue arms. He looked nothing short of menacing.

"I hope that Molly stays on guard…" Altair mumbled as the race started. Molly, Altair knew was a great pilot but he couldn't shake the ominous feeling that had settled in his chest. But ignored it and figured he was just imagining things, because the opposing ship was showing no signs of aggression towards Molly, and watched as she made that sorry excuse for a bug eat her dust as they passed the halfway marker.

"That cannon…" Altair muttered as the Arrow rounded the final turn in the race and it looked like Molly's victory was almost guaranteed… but then it suddenly clicked in his mind when he realized that cannon was glowing.

"Oh no Molly!" Altair screamed making Aikka look at him questioningly.

"What?"

"H-He's been charging that cannon! He hasn't been firing on her because he wanted to-" Altair never got to finish that statement; because at that moment, the cannon fired… it caught Molly just as she passed though the gate….

It caught the cockpit that is…. And tore right through the Arrows hull, causing the cockpits glass window to shatter into a thousand pieces and for Molly to be forcefully thrown out… right into the mess of scrapmetal….

"M-Molly!" Altair screamed and raced out of his seat and down to the track closely followed by Aikka who had grown very pale at the thought of Molly being hurt. Jordan was already out of his turret and digging through the scrap looking for Molly. He wasn't badly injured, just a few cuts and bruises nothing life threatening. Altair began to throw parts and scrap that were 3 times as big as he was, frantically until he a tiny sound got his attention…. He found Molly.

"Over here!" Altair yelled to Aikka and Jordan who had been digging through the rubble looking for Molly….

Molly was a wreck… her body was covered in terrible bloody gashes, and her right arm was broken in three places…. You could tell because the bone was coming out of the flesh in some places… and she was quite clearly unconscious, lying in a pool of her own blood. Altair mentally prayed that the gods would punish Korobast for deliberately trying to kill his sister.

The rescue team brought her to the hospital as quickly as they could. And the Earth team and Aikka sat in the waiting room waiting impatiently to hear how Molly was…

Altair sat in the air duct. Quiet and unseen…. And was quick to feel complete loath for Don Wei, who was more concerned about tomorrows race than Molly's overall wellbeing. Altair also made a mental note to throw something at his head later on.

Finally after what felt like hours, Molly appeared in the doorway accompanied by a young female nurse, her right arm bandaged and in a sling, the rest of her wounds were either healed or bandaged, compliments of alien medical treatment. Jordan and Aikka upon seeing her immediately rushed over to her, followed by Rick who mentally chuckled at the two boys. Although Altair couldn't hear the conversations directly he was able to decipher what they were saying through just the little blurbs of the conversation he could hear, along with body language, which basically translated to Aikka saying he was happy she was alright, Rick saying that she flew a good race and that he was glad she was ok, and Jordan asking if she would like him to pound the bug man into dust….. but it was what Don Wei asked that made Altair's eyes glow eerily at him and leer at him through the vent.

"Will you be able to pilot the Arrow in the race tomorrow morning?" Don Wei asked emotionlessly almost as though he knew the answer but wanted to make Molly feel bad anyway.

Molly sighed and looked at the floor. The nurse was the one who answered. "Young Molly won't be able to pilot for at least 18 days… our technology for healing is good, but we couldn't completely mend the breaks in her arm but we did manage to heal part of it… I'm sorry sir." The nurse said kindly.

Don Wei said nothing, and just walked out… Making Altair think that "Creep" wasn't big enough word to describe this guy….

(Later That Night)

Altair silently like a shadow snuck out of Molly's room. He and Molly had been talking about the race that was supposed to be tomorrow… Poor Molly, she was trying to gain the acceptance of that over grown creep, Don Wei. And although she didn't, Altair could tell she was holding back tears. Just a few minutes ago she had finally drifted off to sleep… "About time." Altair mentally thought…. after all….

How could he plan his surprise for Molly when she was awake?

Altair was now looking at the repaired Arrow with an evil mischievous glitter in his gold eyes and picked up a wrench.

"Hello old friend. Did you miss me? We got work to do!" Altair giggled and began working silently on the Arrow…

They were gonna race tomorrow, whether Don Wei had anything to say about it or not!

(The Next Day, A Few Minutes Before Race Starts)

"Molly…(poke)….Molly, (poke, poke)….MOLLY!! (poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, poke). Molly woke up to a frustrated Altair's pokes.

"What Altair? (Yawn) there's no race today…. Why wake up early?" Molly said glumly

"There IS gonna be a race today Sis! Come on, Get up!" Altair said pulling her out of bed. Within a few minutes it was realized that Jordan had been pulled from his bed also. The trio now stood in the pits kitchen Altair they could tell was up to something.

"Mr. Don Wei-off-his-nut left something for you guys to eat in the fridge!" Altair said taking a large pan out of the refrigerator, inside a nasty, disgusting, green, bubbly, goo that made Altair's happy perky self… sweatdroped and pick up the letter left in the fridge…

"It says bake at 350 for 20 minutes…. But I don't think heating it up will help… it would just make it angry…" Altair muttered. And watch Jordan poke the goo with a fork… nearly all of them jumped when it hissed at them….

"Oooookay,…. Hey Jordan, could you help me with something?" Altair asked

"What?" Jordan asked suspiciously.

"Uh, there is something in your gunner turret!" Altair said hastily

"What? What's in my turret?"

"Just come on!" Altair snapped and pushed Jordan out of the room. "Be right back sis!" Altair called back putting on his cloak while pushing Jordan at the same time….

Molly just stood there dumbstruck…. "What is he up too?" she mentally thought…. But quickly got her answer….

When the Arrow started up…..


	8. Oh Brother! Part 2

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS! WELL HERE'S CHAPTER 8 ENJOY!

Chapter 8

Oh Brother! Part 2

"Altair what are you doing!" Molly said rushing out of the kitchen and into the hanger only to see the Arrow slowly hover out of the pit.

"What is going on!" The all to familiar voice of a sleep deprived Don Wei said making Molly's insides go numb….. "What the- MOLLY!"

"…..We are so busted." Molly thought sadly watching the Arrow fly toward the racing arena…. Hitting about everything in its path at that as well.

"We now call forth the Earth Team!" The judges called out…. There was a long pause then the Arrow barreled into the arena and a young voice screaming loudly: "**Where's the brakes on this thing**!"…. then finally land with a loud thud. The cockpit opened revealing a sweatdroping Altair smiling nervously at the crowd…..

"Uh,… hello! I'm Altair! Backup-backup pilot for the Earth Team!" he said nervously, but his cloak fooled the judges and they accepted that.

"Altair what have you done?" Aikka muttered under his breath so his trainer, who had decided to watch this race with his student, wouldn't hear.

"I can't believe you're doing this you runt!" Jordans annoyed voice rang through the intercom, once Altair had closed the cockpit. Altair leered at him.

"What's your problem now Jor-dumb? You want to forfeit? I'm not really doing it for your team, I'm helping my big sister! So (Sticks out tounge…)"

"Your big sister!" Don Wei screamed into the intercom. Making Altair look at the screen angrily.

"Yeah my big sister! Got a problem with that!" Altair yelled angrily at the screen seeing Molly in the background. "Hi sis!" He said waving at her!

"Do you even know how to fly a race ship Altair?" Molly said into the screen. She wasn't mad at Altair, he was just trying to help her after all.

Altair went silent for a minute then sweatdropped. "Uh,… well not really… I've flown Tridents before…. For about 45 hours of practice time…. and I've had about 196 hours of "Crash Time." Heh, heh heh heh, I was the only kid in the history of my school to make my instructors duck for cover, and consider retirement…. But hey I'm optimistic you won't know you're terrible at something until you crash and burn! Right?" Altair said happily…. Jordan took out his fathers dog tags and prayed that he wouldn't be cloned…

"Tridents?..." Don Wei muttered… then it clicked. "Tridents! Tridents are Crog ships! How could you be taught to fly Crog ships!"

"…Altair **IS** a Crog, Don Wei…"

Molly looked at the floor as Stan, Koji, and Rick, and Don Wei stared at her… she was so dead, there was no hiding the truth now…

"Molly,… care to enlighten us?" Rick said solemnly not liking where this entire ordeal is going.

"…About 5 or 6 weeks ago he crashed here, in the lake, and….well,… I saved him….. and've been taking care of him….he's just a little kid and he's really sweet… I never-"

"You traitor! That kid is a Crog! And you've been keeping him here for almost six weeks you say? He's probably been spying on us the whole time! What were you thinking Molly!"

"Leave my sister alone you jerk!" Altair snapped angrily at Don Wei "She may not be a Crog but she's still a part of my family!"

"We now call forth Menikran from Koje'ngas!" The judges called silencing this conversation……

"Geeze you guys are going up against all the jerks in the galaxy…. These guys are notorious slave traders…. And allies with the Uzangarians at that." Altair muttered sadly.

Sure enough the ship had the same spider like design as Korobasts ship, accept this one was covered in what looked like animal skins, and had multiple cannons positioned all over it. The pilot looked like an overgrown red salamander, wearing black armor, and had deep purple eyes, and a distinctive scar over his snout.

"Jordy you ready?" Altair said into the intercom getting an angry growl from Jordan.

"Don't call me Jordy, shorty!"

"Don't call me shorty, Jordy!" Altair growled back.

"You knew about this too Jordan!" Don Wei yelled angrily at Jordan… but before Jordan could respond, Altair took off causing poor Jordan to slam his head on the glass thankfully not knocking him out though….

Altair was actually a pretty good pilot and actually only hit the wall four times in the first… four turns... but was able to dodge most of the enemy laser blasts though.

"Jordan a little fire power would be appreciated!" Altair growled angrily as the opposing vessel blocked his attempted pass…

"Altair I'm not telling you how to pilot this thing just stop slamming us into the wall all the time!" Jordan yelled back as he opened fire on the other craft, barely doing any damage at all. They entered the tunnel and Altair knew the race was almost over….

"Jordan! New strategy! We're gonna have to use the new laser cannon I installed in your turret!" Altair yelled into the intercom.

"You what!" Jordan and just about everyone else who heard him yelled.

"Listen you need to input the proper command sequence that will enable my cannon to come on line, then charge it using the energy crystals I've installed in the fuel tanks to activate the charge, once it's charged release the energy!" Altair said and Jordan sweatdroped.

"English please."

"…..Press the little blue button….."

As soon as Jordan pressed the button than his entire turret began to reform itself. its twin barrels separated and remerged as one big cannon that hummed to life with extreme fire power.

"Whoa, how'd you build this? You're a kid!" Jordan asked shocked

"Inventing is my passion! I love making gizmos and gadgets! This cannon was a piece of cake to build! I turned a junky, turret into a full fledged laser cannon!" Altair said happily. "Now hold down the triggers and release them to fire when the gauge says full!"

As Jordan pulled the triggers back and he was nothing short of shocked when a huge glowing ball of energy began to form within the cannon, emitting a stunning glassy, gold, glow from within the cannons barrel. Making him silently give Altair some credit…. This thing was totally kick-ass brilliant!

Altair brought the Arrow up beside the enemy ship growling and rammed it hard on the side, slightly knocking it into the wall but not doing any real damage…. Just pissing off his opponent.

"What are you doing kid!" Rick said into the intercom

"Sorry! I keep forgetting Earth star racers don't have blades!" Altair said apologeticly into his intercom.

"Cannon at full power!" Jordan said targeting the opposing ship… they were almost at the finish line,…. It was gonna be close…

"Fire!" Altair and Jordan yelled at the same time and Jordan released the blast… it tore through the opposing ship like a hot knife through butter, and it crashed, totally trashed… and the overall force of the blast gave the arrow enough additional thrust to pass clean through the finish line and nearly crash into the stadium stands… nearly… Aikka's instructor ducked for cover… Aikka sweatdroped… they were missed by…. Well… almost a foot. And having won Altair began to fly back to the Earth team pit.

"Come on Jordan admit it!" Altair giggled into the intercom

"No!"

"Say it!"

"…No…"

"Come on!"

"…….no….."

"Please!"

"Ok, ok!...you did….. a good job…. Altair." Jordan choked out. And Altair smiled happily.

"Thank you Jordan!" Altair said landing the ship in the Earth pit and hopping out of the cockpit…. Only to be greeted by a **VERY P.O.** Don Wei, and Earth crew…Aikka was also there standing next to Molly who looked very, very pale at the moment…."

"Uh, hello sir." Jordan said weakly as he exited the turret. "…Nice race today?"

**BE AWARE IT IS NOW NIGHTTIME**

"Do you have any idea how much trouble your in! Both of you!" He screamed at both of them. Altair seeing no reason to hide his true form anymore took off his cloak off and leered at D.W.

"You !" Don Wei growled looking at Altair. "You're not even from Earth! And how much have about our star racers have you told to the Crog team!"

"I don't even KNOW the Crog team you moron!" Altair snapped but suddenly stoped… his eyes went wide and his ears pricked up…. And his instincts took over and he ducked,….

Just as a snag line whizzed over his head and fastened itself around Don Wei's arms….

It happened so fast no one was in the least bit prepared for what happened… The lasso that snagged D.W. quickly expanded tying up his ankles and torso causing him to fall to the ground with a thud… and just as quickly as that happened the others found themselves bound up as well… the same cords now restrained the entire crew… accept for Altair, who had managed to avoid them…

"Heh heh heh, well the race might be a bust but, oh well at least we ain't leaving without some new slaves!" A hiss like voice slurred into the room causing Altair to wheel around to see Menikran, Korobast and 5 others standing there triumphantly looking at the bound up Earth team then set their sights on Altair.

"Get a look at this boys!" Korobast chuckled "It's a miniature Crog!"

"Let my friends go you sorry excuse for a bug!" Altair snapped eyes glowing. Menikran snickered wickedly and kicked Altair hard in his chest, causing him to fly into the wall and land hard on the ground next to Molly clutching his chest in agony, only to be bound up like the rest of them.

"Well what do we have here?" Menikran said looking at Aikka. "The crown prince of Naurasia?... Imagine how much his people would pay to get him back!" Aikka spat in his face causing Menikran to back hand him across his jaw.

"Almost as sweet a price as we'll get for the Crog!" Korobast said picking Altair up by his ears. "True we only were able to capture 12 of their kind once… and everyone of 'em died before giving into chains… but this one is young! We'll be able to break his spirit a lot easier than an adult! He'll fetch a fine sum!"

"Damn why won't my instincts take over!" Altair mentally screamed being dropped by Korobast.

All of a sudden the power in the Earth pit went out…. And came on two seconds later… revealing a cloaked form standing before them…. Quickly it brought its hood down….

It was a female Phyl…. One of Spirits kind…. Or at least part Phyl anyways, it didn't have a mask like face like spirit, it was a human looking, but definitely had a hair style like Spirit, and large ears also like Spirit, one arm was in a sling…. The other was exposed, like a giant wing, senselessly flapping around… her expression blank, her large blue eyes had an innocent hue about them though.

"Where'd you come from? Oh well it's your own unfortunate luck you're here!" Menikran snickered and the group of slave traders advanced toward her….

Right behind them…. A towering cloaked form dropped from the ceiling window, and as silently as a shadow cut the cords restraing the group and walked, silently behind behind the slave traders, causing the Phyl to smile, exposing large her fang like teeth.

"What are ya grin'n at girl?" Korobast growled

"I was actually just thinking about how easy you guys are to distract! Right Wraith?" The girl Phyl laughed as the slave traders wheeled around to face the hooded, cloaked form… and he pulled down his hood making them gasp in slight shock.

He was a Crog…..

He stood about a foot and a half over Rick, he looked both well muscled and thin at the same time…. But his ears were his odd quality…. They went a foot back just passed his shoulders and curved backwards stopping at his waist….. like giant scythe blades….. Possibly if they were standing straight up…. They'd be at least 6 feet long, maybe longer… and boy he looked pissed.

"What do you think your doing?...**TO MY BABY BROTHER!**"


	9. Wraith and Rain

**YEAH SORRY ABOUT THE CRAPPINESS OF THE LAST CHAPTER…. I BASICLY RUSHED TO GET IT UP AND DIDN'T CHECK IT SORRY! …..JUST A WARNING ……THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER IS GONNA HAVE A BIT OF GORE IN IT…..ENJOY!**

Chapter 9

Wraith and Rain

Molly's jaw nearly hit the ground. "He's got an older brother?! Holy Shit!" She mentally screamed. Why hadn't Altair mentioned he had a brother? And what the heck was with the Phyl girl? The whole situation was completely whacked!

"You're gonna pay for hurting my brother….." Wraith said in a menacing tone as he completely removed his cloak revealing he wore blood red armor without shoulder plates, but on his hands were an interesting pair of gloves, they looked like talons a metal claw glittered with a silvery metallic color in the light, red material covered his hand below the claw and stretched a little bit above his wrist, and joined with an iron cast that went slightly up his forearm, and was covered in small intricate symbols and shone with a glassy greenish hue.

Obviously a weapon of choice…

"We're not afraid of you Crog! Or your freaky friend!" one of Menikrans' kind yelled…. Wraith just casually sidestepped as he was sent flying forwards by a very pissed looking Phyl.

"Nobody calls me a freak and gets away with it!" She roared changing her good arm back to normal, and shaking her fist at him angrily. Wraiths attention however was drawn back too the current onlookers to this entire situation….. namely Molly and the others.

"Close your eyes… I don't want you to have to see this…" Wraith said turning around and facing the startled Earth team… and his brother.

"W-Wraith?... is it really you?" Altair whispered as though he really couldn't believe his brother was actually right there right in front of him.

"We'll catch up later…. Just close your eyes and don't open them till I say so." Wraith said his gaze transfixed on his opponents. "Who's first?"

"I'll take you on!" Korobast roared cracking his knuckles **(On all 4 of his hands)** and lunged at Wraith, who dodged smoothly wheeled behind his attacker and slammed him hard in the center of his back, causing him to plow his face into the floor completely winding him.

"Get him!" Menikran roared, but his crew hesitated seeing Wraiths eyes glow bright gold.

"Take your best shot fools…. I'll throw it back at you a thousand-fold!" He growled angrily…. Suddenly his ultra sensitive ears picked up a slight sound from directly behind him…. And he caught the pipe Korobast was going to hit him with; with one hand and held it there for a moment… Korobast was too shocked to move….. Let alone prepare for what came next.

"My turn…" Wraith whispered and wheeled around to face a stunned Korobast, and he drove his War Talons into his stomach. Korobast emitted a blood churning cry as he was practically gutted alive, but Wraith wasn't going to kill him….he didn't want the deaths of these pathetic creatures on his hands…. There was no honor in that…

Korobast lost consciousness due to blood loss and pain and collapsed in a heap on the ground…. He was alive but only just.

Menikran paled. He just beat Korobast! No one had even managed to beat him in a fist fight before for crying out loud! And there was something about that Crogs eyes… there was a fiery power behind them…. He had a very bad feeling that none of them were getting out of here alive.

"Geeze Wraith,…. Ya mind, that's gross!" The Phyl **(Whose name is Rain) **said disgusted, but not freaking out.

"Let's get out of here!" One of Menikrans soldiers said, and they high tailed it out of the pit area. Rain just moved out the way and tutted to herself saying, "Those guys don't know how dead they are…"

Wraith wasn't going to let them get away though. As quick as a bullet, he tore after them eyes glowing in the darkness like orbs of golden fire. Quickly catching up to one of them he smashed his War Talons over the squirming creature's head making it lose consciousness immediately…. He was much smarter than you might expect, knowing how much force was necessary to defeat his enemies without killing them….

After a few minutes he tired of chasing the pathetic creatures around, and he stopped in his tracks…. And slid one of his bloody gauntlets down revealing a strange device on his wrist…. A strange watch of some sorts…. He pressed a few buttons and a robotic voice said: "Auto pilot engaged…. Targets acquired."

From out of nowhere a "Level 2" Trident **(LIKE KROSS'S TRIDENT)** appeared in front of Menikran and his men and began to fire its cannons at them…. Herding them back into their pit and causing the whimpering creatures to huddle in the corner, cowering in fear of Wraith who after disengaging the auto pilot on his ship towered over them eyes glowing in rage.

"If you **EVER** come near the Earthlings or my brother again…. I won't show you any mercy….. I'll kill you all….. **DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"** Wraith roared causing them all to cry out in fear and agreement. "Good now, get lost…" Wraith growled walking out of that pit… but returning quickly and tossed the unconscious Korobast against the far wall in Menikrans pit causing his entire crew to whimper in fear again as Wraith returned to the Earth pit.

"Okay it's safe to look now-" Wraith said as he returned…. Only to be fly tackled by Altair.

"Wraith! I can't believe you're here! How come you're not back at the academy? Oh Wraith I missed you **SO** much!" Altair practically sobbed as he hugged his brother who hugged him back as well.

"I missed you to Altair….. geeze you got big in five years…." Wraith said softly to his brother…

"Hello!" Rain said appearing behind Wraith and leaning on his shoulder smiling at Altair.

"AAAHHH!!!" Altair screamed and let go of his brother and dropped to the floor. "Who the heck are you?!"

"I'm Rain! So you're Altair eh? Your brother told me all about you!" She said happily… Altair looked from Wraith to Rain and then back to Wraith and giggled.

"Way to go Wraith!" Altair chuckled causing Wraith to sweatdrop.

"She's not my girlfriend Altair…" he said flatly and Rain chuckled, however Wraiths attention was drawn to the petrified Earth team and Altair quickly spoke into Wraiths ear as he walked over to Molly.

"It seems you were the one who has taken such good care of my little brother all this time." Wraith said to Molly kindly who was still kinda wierded out by his height and quite noticeable strength. "You have my eternal gratitude…. Its Molly isn't it?" Wraith questioned

"She's like a big sister to me Wraith!!!" Altair said and Wraith chuckled.

"It was no big deal really." Molly said rubbing the back of her head.

"My little brother certainly seems to like you-"

"Excuse me!" Don Wei interrupted stepping in between Wraith and Molly. "We appreciate you saving us…. But we'd appreciate it a lot more if you took your little brother and left!" He snapped…… Rick wasn't even going to bother to stop him it was no use either way the end of this little discussion wasn't going to end well…

"Be quiet." Wraith said flatly casting an annoyed glance at Don Wei.

"Geeze you sure have an odd way of showing your gratitude old man… Wraith just saves you guys and then you try to just kick him out? You must be one sad lonely guy aren't ya?"

"You're not welcome here either!" Don Wei growled at Rain, who growled right back.

"Hey, I'm half human ya' idiot!"

"It doesn't matter! Get out now! You freak!" Don Wei roared angrily… Molly knew that he still believed Spirit killed her mother, Maya. Chances are he's probably gonna hold it against all Phyls…. But Molly knew the truth now and felt sorry for Rain, getting yelled at like that.

"This is definitely bad." Wraith mumbled and motioned for everyone to follow him as Rain began to look **EXTREMLY** pissed.

"So what is taking place here?" Aikka asked as Rain began to approach Don Wei with a very menacing glare.

"The one thing you **NEVER** call Rain is a freak…. She hates that above all else…. I feel sorry for your friend; Rain's strong enough to give an adult warrior Crog serious problems if she gets pissed enough. With or without a broken arm." Wraith said solemnly.

"Wait, how old are you?" Jordan questioned.

"I'm 16."

"I'm older than you are! I'm 17!" Jordan chuckled of course that was a stupid comment because either way he just barely came up to Wraiths chest.

"Should we be concerned about the safety of your friend over there?" Aikka questioned as Rain began chasing Don Wei around the pit.

"He brought it on himself…" Rick said without a hint of sympathy.

"He does deserve it." Stan agreed. "With the way he treats everyone and everything."

"Hey where's the little kid? Altair?" Rick questioned. Sure enough Altair was gone….. of course they quickly found him in deep discussion with Koji about building such an advanced laser cannon with limited resources.

"He certainly seems happy, I didn't think I'd ever see him this happy again after…." Wraith said but immediately stopped upon reaching the tender subject of his mothers passing… Molly figured if it was difficult for Altair, it must be equally hard, if not harder for Wraith.

"I truly hate to bother you after all you've done for my brother…. But upon entering this planets atmosphere, my Trident was badly damaged, and incapable of leaving this planet for intergalactic travel…. May I request-" Wraith started but was interrupted by Rick.

"Yes, you and your girlfriend can stay here we have a few extra rooms….. but why here and not at the Crog pit?" Rick asked getting a stern look from Wraith about the "Girlfriend" comment he made.

"Let's just say… I'm not supposed to be here…. On this planet." Wraith said with a tone that said he wasn't going to say anything else.

"What's going on?" Rain said coming over to the group and leaning on Wraiths shoulder.

"We're staying here for a while." Wraith said

"That's cool with me!" she said following the group upstairs and into one of the spare rooms. Aikka was just leaving but an annoying thought kept bothering him.

"His armor…. Red armor is only distributed among warriors in the army…." Aikka thought but shrugged it off….. it was to late to think about that……

**(THE NEXT MORNING)**

Molly woke up early the next morning, Altair was still curled up on the floor asleep with a blanket and pillow, and purring softly to himself in his dreams. Yawning she silently snuck out of her room. There was an odd smell coming from the kitchen.

When Molly entered the kitchen she was nothing short of surprised. There was a very tall teenage human with long blonde hair and large acid green eyes…. And in a way struck her as the person who all the sissy girls in her boarding school would start drooling over the second they saw him. She almost didn't recognize him the only thin that gave away who he was, was the factor that by his ears were massive locks of gold hair, that matched his giant, scythe like ears…. Obviously those locks really were his ears.

"Good morning Wraith!" She said as he turned around to see her.

"Good morning to you as well, your little friend Setis came over and gave me this shape changing cloak…… he's a little freaky, how he just disappears like that… oh well you hungry?" Wraith asked.

Molly was stunned, "You cook?"

"A few years at a military academy and you pretty much learn to take care of yourself…. Or die of food poisoning; cooking is not something my kind is gifted with." Wraith chuckled setting her a plate full of food.

Molly hesitated but since he didn't seem like he was going to poison her took a bite. "Whoa this is delicious! Way better than that crap Don Wei makes us eat!"

"Hey what smells delicious?" Stan and Koji said coming into the kitchen they were still in their pajamas **(Koji's have little teddy bears on them) **and took a seat in the kitchen and Wraith served them plates of breakfast….. Shortly afterwards Jordan, Altair, and Rain came down, so the only people missing were Don Wei, and Rick.

"Oh, Don Wei's all tied up at the moment…. He won't be coming down for breakfast." Rain said when Koji asked where D.W. was.

**(FLASH TO UPSTAIRS, DON WEI IS TIED UP, WITH A BLACK EYE, AND GAGGED WITH ONE OF HIS OWN SOCKS)**

Rick came down a little later he was dressed in his dark brown trench coat, apparently on his way out.

"Hey Rick! Want some breakfast? It's really good!" Molly said as he walked into the kitchen.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry….. Actually I have a question for you Wraith." Rick said in a serious tone getting Wraith's attention.

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea what this is?" Rick said and pulled out a stone medallion out of his pocket.

The Timeless Ones medallion…..

Wraith for a minute just stared at it… then something seemed to click in his head.

"Altair," Wraith said seriously. "Do you still have that old book we found in those ruins when we were kids?"

"Uh,… yeah it's in my backpack….why?"

"Could you go get it?" Wraith said and Altair went upstairs got his backpack that he had brought with him when he first crashed there…. And pulled out a large, thick, old book…. On its cover were three symbols that made a triangle….. One was The Avatars crest, located to the bottom right of the book, then there was The Timeless Ones crest, too the bottom left, then right at the top was an unknown crest it looked like a combination of the other two accept at the sides were what looked like four jagged lightning bolts on either side of the crest.

Wraith quickly scanned the cover, of course by now everyone was interested and crowding around to look at the book.

"As I thought….. one of the Trinity….."

"The Trinity?" Rick questioned looking at the book.

"Lightning and Ethereal." Wraith said pointing to The Avatars crest. "Fire and Shadows." He said pointing to The Timeless Ones crest. "And Water and Light." He finished pointing to the unidentifiable crest….. "The crest of our goddess Anavrin."

"Do you know anything about this?" Rick asked totally stunned.

"I only know a little bit….. But are you sure you want to know?"


	10. Trinity

Chapter 10

Trinity

"Well… it's been said in truly ancient times, there was peace on all levels of the universe… sustained by a balance of divine powers…. There were thousands of beings called "gods" whether they are really gods or just powerful beings that come from Oban….. Oban seems to be the origin point of all the gods and goddesses of the universe….Well there were three that seemed to possess powers that were particularly powerful. Elements of water, fire, and lightning. They were the Trinity, an arrangement that held a balance with the universe, and with each other."

"Why's this Trinity so important? If it's just a legend?" Koji inquired.

"What even truly happened to the Trinity, no one knows…. It could be just a legend." Wraith said turning page after page in the book. "However the story goes that there was a terrible disaster that wiped out countless races of beings throughout the entire universe. ….this disaster was referred to as The Cataclysm…And the Trinity using their immense powers were just barely able to stop it, and sealed away its cause, supposedly it was caused by "Eternal Darkness" something or other…. And this disaster was referred to as The Cataclysm…" Wraith said and was silent for awhile.

"Apparently our goddess Anavrin, disappeared afterwards…. Throwing the other two, who were never on good terms with each other to start with, even more out of balance than before….. The god of lightning and ethereal often described the god of fire and shadows as a disaster that if not dealt with early would undoubtedly lead to the ultimate destruction of the universe…… shortly afterward a war broke out between the two of them and fire god disappeared…. The Trinity was broken and the Avatar seems to be the only one who is still around." Wraith said and began clearing the plates of those whom had finished their food, assisted by Molly, Rain, and Altair.

"So what you're saying is that an ancient god aside from the Avatar is up to something?" Rick said disbelievingly. Wraith shrugged "Who knows? I don't. I just told you all I know." Rick sighed placed the medallion on the counter, waved goodbye and left…

"So what do you guys want to do?" Rain asked Molly who shrugged.

"I don't know… Wraith, what would you like to do?" Molly asked.

"A chance to actually walk around outside in the sun without that cloak would be nice." Wraith said.

"Sounds good to me!" Altair said happily putting on his cloak as the others walked out the door…. But that medallion caught his eye, and like all kids, out of curiosity picked it up….

A chill suddenly ran through his small body, as though he had just touched a piece of ice… and the air seemed to become very cold all of a sudden.

"_Let me out… Let me out… Let me out of these chains!"_ a cold voice said into Altair's mind.

Altair screamed and dropped the medallion totally freaked out…. Once he calmed down he picked up the pendent by its cord and put it back on the counter.

"Why does all the freaky crap happen to me?" Altair whined.

"Hey short stuff! Ya coming?" Jordan's voice rang through the pit making Altair growl and run outside to tell him off…. And Altair forgot all about the cold voice that had spoke into his mind….

….but he didn't lose the chill in his spine for a good week…


	11. Everlight

Chapter 11

Everlight….

"_Why?... Why is it that I am the one who is forced to suffer?!"_

"_As though life hadn't been cruel enough to me! Isn't the curse I am forced to bear every second of my existence enough?!"_

"_I hate you! And I'll get you for locking me away……"_

"_I'll get out and tear your insides out! You sorry excuse for a floating dishtowel! Then I'll lock you up for 300,000 years in this damn cage and see how you like it!"_

"_Then after I think you've suffered enough I'll rip your accursed beating heart out, tear it into a thousand pieces and scatter it all over the universe! So help me I will!" _

"_I hate you!"_

"………_I hate everything……"_

* * *

Altair woke up with a startled cry. Then after calming down put his head in his hands. That was the fourth time he'd had a weird dream like that in the past three weeks!

"Can't the universe find someone else to annoy?!" He mumbled angrily.

"Hey sleepy head wakey-wakey." Molly said coming into the room smiling. "You ready for some smores?"

"In the name of Anavrin you bet I am!!!" he said jumping up! "I'll go get the chocolate!" he yelled but Molly caught him before he could run into Jordan's room and raid his candy stash….. again…….

"Already got it! We're just waiting for you!" Molly said and Altair suddenly looked sad.

"Oh,… I wanted to mess up Jordy's room…" he said sadly

"Don't worry… just stick a gooey marshmallow in his hair!"

"Yay!" Altair said happily. "If there are any left after I get to them!" He said and they walked outside. It was very dark out, Altair had been napping for several hours today…. Probably due to the factor that he'd just got off another sugar high. **(And had nearly broken Don Wei's neck in the process) "**Yes… life is good." Molly thought and followed Altair outside to where everybody else was sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows. Aikka was also there as well wondering what exactly a "Smore" was.

It was truly as though Wraith and Altair were her actual brothers. Wraith for sure had the protective older brother thing down pat. He too seemed to view Molly as a part of his family and he was really, really, nice. He was also vigilant, strong, smart, and an amazing older brother to Altair… he truly loved his brother and would go out of his way to protect him….. Molly was glad Altair was Altair, the little mad genius that he is…. He truly was brilliant and got along very well with everyone…..accept Jordan. But Altair was fun loving and kind, though he could certainly get into his fair share of trouble from time to time…. But Molly loved him and he had a place in her heart as though he was her little brother through blood…. And species.

Rain however certainly was an odd case. For one she was extremely hyperactive and a little crazy, and a little clueless sometimes, but she was very nice nonetheless. Aside from that no one really knew that much about her **(Accept Wraith whom has known her a little longer than the others)** … and it was just as Altair and Molly had sat down that Koji asked the question everyone had been wondering about.

"So Rain, how'd you wined up here on Alwas?... Well I mean you said you came here with Wraith but how'd you two meet and where were you raised on Earth? Or the Phyl's planet?" Koji asked… and Wraith sweatdroped not liking where this story was most likely going to go.

After Rain swallowed the smore she'd been eating she looked at Koji and smiled. "Well as you all should know I'm a half breed. My mother was a human and my father was a Phyl. However, when I was eight my mother passed away….. but my human grandparents wouldn't allow my father to take me back to his home planet to live with him…. He was kinda blamed for someone's death, and they used that to get custody over me. But my father never hurt anybody! It was an accident! So I rarely got to see him."

"That's terrible!" Stan said and Molly gulped. "Uh-oh"

"Well life was certainly… interesting after that. School was certainly different…. Namely it sucked. I had no friends and I was considered a freak. **(Insert menacing growl and demonic look)** Those bastards! **(Calming down) **Well my grandparents are filthy rich snobs and tried to make me out to be a "Perfect Young Lady" and all the crap that goes with it." **(Wraith nearly chokes with laughter) "**Well finally I got fed up with everything when I turned 16 and they tried to set me up with snobby boy I didn't like and even after I told them I didn't like him they demanded that I should be his girlfriend and that his "good blood" would hopefully neutralize my "bad blood" I got so angry that beat up that snobby little brat and broke his nose… my grandparents were furious at me of course, but I'd had it and ran away!... How my mother put up with them I'll never know. But if her life was anything like mine, with them choosing her dates, no wonder she said my dad was undoubtedly the best thing that ever happened to her…. He was a great guy and she really loved him big time…. Well I wanted to see everything that life had to offer! So I decided that I wanted to see another planet first!"

"Ya' wouldn't be satisfied with setting your sights a little smaller to start with, maybe on like…. HollyWood? Or New York City?" Jordan asked, getting a large grin from Rain.

"If ya gotta dream, dream big! That's what I say!" Rain chuckled.

"So I heard about another shuttle that was going into space to fix something on one of the space stations…. So I saw my chance and I stowed away on board! When the shuttle arrived at the station I got out of my hiding spot, and opened one of the hatches and was outside of the shuttle…. I also learned you gotta shut those doors real quick or there will be a very unhappy bunch of astronauts… They all kinda did faceplants on the door as soon as I closed it… I think I broke someone's nose when they contacted the door….."

"You were OUTSIDE the shuttle WITHOUT a space suit?" Don Wei said disbelievingly **(He's still got that black eye Rain gave him, and he also didn't notice Altair steal his smore)** "I think you've got a serious overactive imagination, you're probably making this whole thing up!"

Rain looked like she was gonna kill D.W. but suddenly stopped and sweatdroped. "Yeah I never thought about that How did I breathe in space?"

"The Phyl people can breathe in space…" Wraith said putting the last of his smore in his mouth.

"HAHA!" Rain laughed at Don Wei **(Who was now wondering what happened to his smore)** "Anyway just as I changed into my bird like form I realized something I hadn't thought about before-"

"She can't fly…"Wraith said getting a depressed look from Rain.

"Wraith you weren't supposed to tell!" Rain sobbed.

"Weren't you about to tell them?" Wraith questioned.

"Uh,….. yeah." Rain chuckled. "But I made it to the Dragons Teeth asteroid belt by gliding."

"And you flew right into it, and broke your arm… you were lucky I came by, following the energy signals of another Tridents Hyperdrive….. Altair." Wraith said glancing at Altair who sweatdroped.

"Yeah I remember that the ride became oddly bumpy at one point…." Altair chuckled.

"Great…. The Crog is her knight in shining armor…" Jordan muttered under his breath but both Wraith and Rain heard him and before Wraith could say anything, Rain did….

"Exactly! You took the words right out of my mouth!" Rain said standing up and looking at poor Wraith. "You're my best friend! That's exactly why I choose you!"

"Choose me for what?" Wraith said nervously.

"You're gonna teach me how to fly!" Rain said happily Wraith and everyone else sweatdroped.

"I can't fly." Wraith said flatly, but Rain suddenly got behind him and grabbed his ears!

"What you can't fly with these huge ears of yours?" Rain questioned and everybody burst out laughing **(Accept Wraith)** ….

Koji sighed after catching his breath from laughing so hard and noticed something…. Apparently everyone else noticed him staring at the sky…

"Hey Koji what are you looking at?" Stan asked also looking at the sky as did everybody else.

"There's something up there… like a meteor or something." Koji said pointing to something in the sky which everybody looked at… after a minute Molly gasped in shock.

"I am getting serious deja'vu here!" Molly screamed as it was now clearly outlined to be a ship of some sorts…. And it crashed behind the Earth team's hanger near the lake.

Everyone stared at it in shock…. It was another Trident…. Only it was extremely damaged…. Like it had just come from the middle of a war zone… Wraith was the first to regain his movement and walked over, and after a minute was followed by Rain and Molly, **(Aikka and Jordan followed after her) **Wraith was cautious as he forced open the door to the battle damaged Trident and peered inside.

"Oh… goddess…" He muttered and looked at the petrified group with fear and shock clearly reflected in his eyes. "I'm gonna need some help." He muttered and disappeared inside for a moment……

….He came out carrying an adult Crog mostly on his back and a smaller Crog in his arms.

Molly gasped at the sight of the huge Crog… he was torn to bits, blood was everywhere, and she saw that to her horror his entire left arm was blown off and blood was literally pouring out. And there was a terrible bloody hole where his left eye should have been… and he had obviously been stabbed in his chest… many, many times… but the smaller one was undoubtedly a child… and looked younger than Altair. It wore what looked like white armor but other than that not much could be determined.

Wraith set the larger Crog down against a nearby tree and looked at the smaller one he'd been carrying and his eyes went wide with shock.

"Everlight?" he said stunned but he was suddenly grabbed by the Crog he'd just set down… his one eye open and staring at Wraith and brought him very close to his face.

"T-Tell Kross………M-My debt…of gratitude is……… paid……" The Crog said into Wraith's ear… then he released him from his iron like grip…eye still open and staring…

…but his soul was gone…

Wraith sighed and closed the dead Crogs eyes…."He's gone…" Wraith muttered sadly and looked over at the young Crog.

"Oh Everlight,… what happened to you?" Wraith said and placed her in Molly's arms.

"I'll take care of the corpse and what's left of the Trident…"He said emotionlessly.

Molly nodded and looked at the small girl Crog named Everlight…. She looked like any of the Crogs she'd seen so far…. Accept for one very small detail….

Everlight had four ears…..


	12. Pain Within

**OKAY SORRY I SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED BEFORE THIS IS SET AFTER SILENT LIKE SPIRIT… SORRY!**

Chapter 12

Pain Within…

"Everlight?" Altair said looking at the small Crog Molly was now holding. Rain and Wraith had gone off to bury the dead Crog and they'd been gone at least an hour.

"You know her Altair?" Molly asked and Altair nodded. "We used to play together when we were little and whenever her father was checking up on the troops stationed near my boarding school! What's she doing here?"

"She doesn't look good." Aikka said bending over to look at Everlight. He was right, she looked very thin and weak… like she hadn't eaten for days, maybe weeks even.

"I'll get something to wrap her in." Jordan said. The second he said this Altair grabbed his ears.

"Do my ears lie, or did you just offer to help a Crog?" Altair said and Jordan gritted his teeth.

"She looks cold… and………….. maybe…… not all Crogs are….. so bad." He choked out making Molly smile. "That's very mature of you Jordan." She said and Jordan blushed and went to go get a blanket.

It was a few minutes later that Wraith and Rain came back covered in dirt **(and in Wraith's case blood) **"How's she doing?" Rain said worriedly bending down to look at the unconscious Crog child.

"Here's the blanket." Jordan said and handed the blanket to Molly who wrapped Everlight in it.

"Now this is seriously screwed up!" Wraith growled angrily. "What in the name of Anavrin is Everlight doing here?" however before anyone could answer a small moan got their attention.

"W-Where am I?" Everlight said coming too.

"Everlight? Remember me? Altair?" Altair said taking off his cloak and waving to her. However the little Crog was very quick and in two seconds… Altair was caught in a hug.

"Altair! I've missed you so much! I've been all alone!" Everlight sobbed.

"Ever- light…. Your choking**,(Cough)** me!" Altair gasped and Everlight let him go. "Sorry!"

Jordan snickered "Way to go little guy." and Altair glared at him.

"Everlight, what are you doing here?" Wraith said getting Everlight to look at him.

"Wraith you're here too?" Everlight said and her voice echoed relief. But then she looked over at Molly, and Jordan, **(Rick, Stan, and Koji went inside thinking it best that the others handle this…)** who were watching these events unfold and she took a step back. "W-Who are you?"

"Don't worry Everlight!" Altair said pointing to Molly. "She's like my big sister!" Altair said happily, and Everlight relaxed.

"Okay, anyone who's close to Altair has to be a nice person!" Everlight said happily. But then looked confused. "Where's the nice Mr. Kovas who saved me?" Everlight asked.

Everyone was silent until Wraith spoke up."He's back with his family now." Wraith said and Everlight accepted that and turned around to face the group again.

"It's nice to meet you every-" she began, but the second her eyes landed on Aikka she froze…. Long minutes passed without Everlight blinking or averting her gaze, just staring… Aikka started to feel very uncomfortable under the small Crogs gaze.

Wraith suddenly realized exactly what was going on and a chill ran up his spine.

"Oh, no…." he whispered just as Everlight screamed.

"AAAAHHHH! STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER!" Everlight screamed and backed up and everyone looked at Aikka totally lost.

"I mean you no harm-" Aikka began but was cut off by Everlight.

"Stay away!" Everlight screamed.

"Please…" Aikka said backing away and kneeling down. "I mean you no harm."

"Stay away!" She roared and something totally unexpected happened. Everlight's brought her right hand back and a ball of shining blue light formed in her hand, and with all her strength hurled it at Aikka! And it contacted him clean in the chest. And he was blown off his feet.

"Aikka!" Molly said and rushed over to help him up. Aikka was more shocked than hurt, it was a good thing Everlight was weak at the time or else she might have done some serious damage. They also for a minute just stared at the small trembling Crog child… her energy was running out and she was also quite clearly scared out of her mind. Thankfully Wraith was the one who knew what to do. He quickly picked up Everlight and began speaking very softly in her ears… apparently after several minutes Everlight was lulled into a deep sleep by his soft and kind words.

Wraith sighed and looked at the very freaked out Earth team. "She's asleep." Rain walked over to him and very carefully took Everlight out of his arms and was quick to notice that on Everlight's shoulder there was a crescent moon birthmark **(The birthmark is white on her black skin and her armor just barely shows it)** took her inside and placed her in her bed, covered her, and came back outside.

"She's asleep in my room. I guess I'll be bunking in your room tonight Molly." Rain said and then everyone focused on Wraith.

"I apologize for Everlight's actions." He said emotionlessly

"What's the deal? I thought that the Naurasian people were all chummy with the Crogs. And yet that kid acted as though Aikka was a demon or something. What's with that?" Jordan asked… Wraith sighed and looked up at the moon and Altair kinda looked sad as well.

"Everlight is just like us." Wraith said his gaze never leaving the sky. "Everlight lost her mother when she was very young."

"What does that have to do with me and my people?" Aikka said questioningly.

"I'm getting there… Everlight is 8, a year younger than Altair. And I'm sad to say you probably know her father… General Kross."

Aikka looked absolutely horrified. "Kross! He's one of the most feared warriors in the Crog Imperium! And you say he's her father?!"

"Yes he is… When Everlight was three her mother Celia, Kross's life mate was suddenly diagnosed with an illness no one could identify… in the months that followed her health deteriorated and she was on her deathbed…. And in the case of all our kind, he never left his mate's side while she was dying… he'd done everything he could to try and save his mate… but everything failed… Celia also happened to be the ambassador to Naurasia at the time and entered her death struggles took place there…"

Aikka bowed his head sadly. "I think I may know what happened next…"

Wraith nodded and continued. "She was in her death struggles for 12 days… and for 12 days Kross never left his mates side… he didn't sleep at all, and by the time the twelfth day came… he was weak, very weak…. Apparently there was a group of Naurasians who weren't very fond of our kind… and they heard that our ambassador had become ill… they barged in… and slaughtered Celia…. And permanently scared Kross's eye…."

"I heard of that terrible event." Aikka said solemnly. "The group was due to executed for their crimes but-"

"But Kross did the executioners job personally…. And in a very…um,… graphic, way I understand." Wraith grimaced

"They were so mangled that we needed mops to get as much of their bodies as we could…." Aikka said sadly.

"Kross now, understandably…. Holds a huge grudge against all Naurasians… and through his eyes… err… eye, Everlight also sees Naurasians as monsters…"

"That's kinda understandable…" Jordan sighed. "After all, after my father was killed I hated all Crogs…. I thought you were all nothing but monsters."

"Wait a minute!" Rain said. "What was the deal with her magic? She just blew Aikka off his feet what's the deal with that?"

"That is a good question." Aikka agreed. "I've never heard of Crogs being able to use magic before."

"You probably wouldn't have… Everlight is a Caster, a Mage as most would refer to it. There are approximately 360 billion Crogs throughout the universe **(Jordan sweatdrops big time) **80 on our home planet, and 20 on other worlds, and there are maybe 100 Casters…. Maybe less." Wraith said and just about everyone's jaws dropped.

"Well that's good to know…" Molly said rubbing the back of her head…

"Aikka I suggest that you keep your distance from Everlight…. If she wasn't so weak she might have killed you." Wraith said and Aikka nodded.

"When you do come over, I'll let you borrow my cloak." Altair said yawning. "The one thing I don't get is why she's in such a bad condition." He added.

"That is a question I can't answer…" Wraith muttered. "Kross takes the term "Over protective father" to a whole new level… she's his reason for living. Our kind don't die… well not easily that is… our biological clocks stop when we turn 25, and we don't age past that. We stay that way basically forever…. We can die in battle of course, we're not completely immortal, there is no disease among us, our immune systems can handle anything, which makes Celia's death an even greater mystery to us… and we can die when we choose to die…"

"Choose to die?" Molly questioned.

"When we have nothing left to live for… if our life mate dies since we don't re-marry, or our families die and we're left all alone… we go down a "self-destructive" path and then just well… die… if Kross didn't have Everlight to care for he'd have died a long time ago… Come to think of it… the oldest of our kind was around for the last Oban race… and he's taking care of his grandchildren… they were orphaned by war… his mate has passed on also due to war…" Wraith said solemnly.

Aikka sighed and looked up at the night sky… "It's getting late… I should be going. Thank you very much for the smore's they were actually quite good." Aikka said and left.

"I assumed he liked them." Altair said as he and the others decided to call it a night. "He ate about four of them."

As Altair lay down in his traditional area on the floor he was an inch away from sleep when a distant memory came back to him.

"Those crests… of the ancient gods… weren't they what Everlight used to draw all the time?" And with that thought Altair groaned….

Why did he feel like he was gonna have the mother of all weird dreams tonight?


	13. Nightmares

Chapter 13

Nightmares….

"_I will get out… one of these days I will get out!"_

"_Do you think I've forgotten?! How could I possibly forget?!"_

"_I will never forget… it wasn't my fault! I know it wasn't!"_

"_I didn't do anything! You knew damn it! You knew I did nothing! And yet you imprisoned me still! But I know the reason why!"_

Silence…. Cold empty silence. This was all Altair heard. He couldn't see anything, let alone who was speaking… but he could in a very strange way… _feel…_in his dreamhe could feel that he was very cold… not as in his body was physically cold, but a cold like the aura that surrounds sadness… he could somehow feel a terrible mix of emotions… Rage, fear, and most importantly, an in particular feeling Altair knew…. He felt it only one time before… on the worst day of his life.

He felt like this on the day his mother died…

This terrible feeling of loss and bitterness hung in the air like a fog… Whoever was here in this dream world had obviously lost someone precious to them… and he heard a faint sound. It sounded like a mix of chains rattling and a muffled sob.

"_You fear my curse…… you fear what I may become." _The voice said almost like it was afraid… afraid of admitting it.

"_You're afraid… that I will become that monster… this fear… I understand…"_

"_I understand it… because for all my life, I had to live with it… I've lived through all the pain, discrimination, and of course the loneliness that goes with it."_

"_I knew you'd always hated me… surprise, surprise…"_

"…_. There was only one person who ever overlooked my curse..."_

"_She was the only one… who was my friend…and didn't treat me like I was a monster."_

"… _I… never knew what it was like to be accepted before… it felt… good…"_

"_Not that it matters anymore… she's gone…"_

"_After that battle… she just disappeared."_

"_I never… got to tell her… how grateful I was for everything she did… all her kindness."_

"_Well it doesn't matter… does it?"_

"_I guess… I truly am cursed… I've had my happiness, now I must pay for it."_

"…… _Whether I ever get out of here or not…"_

"_I will always hate you… that's a promise."_

"_And if I ever **DO **get out…"_

"_I'll lock **YOU** up… **AND NEVER LET YOU OUT**!" _

Now the air filled with anger, rage, and burning hate. It was so powerful that Altair screamed and sprang off the floor… hitting his head on the ceiling in the process. Then falling down and landing on top of Rain who'd been sleeping in the corner next to him.

"Yeow!" Rain groaned. "Watch it will ya?"

"Altair, are you okay?" Molly said woozily having just been woken up by Altair's scream.

"Y-Yes… I'm okay… just a nightmare." Altair said getting off of Rain and getting back into his normal sleeping area. Constantly telling himself over and over again that it was just a nightmare.

He didn't know that this was one nightmare that was very, very real.


	14. Anavrin?

**I THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR KIND REVIEWS. WHEN I FIRST WROTE THIS STORY I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA GET FLAMED OFF THE NET…. I THANK EVERYONE VERY, VERY MUCH! HOWEVER I MUST ALSO APOLOGIZE I CAN'T REALLY CONTACT ANYBODY, BECAUSE I'M TYPING AT SCHOOL ALL THE TIME BECAUSE MY ITERNET CONNECTION AT MY HOUSE IS SHOT AND I CAN'T E-MAIL OUT OF SCHOOL!! IT IS VERY VEXING AND I'M SORRY BUT NO ONE CAN CONTACT ME EITHER!!! I'VE MISSED GOD KNOWS HOW MANY IMPORTANT E-MAILS!!! I'M REALLY SORRY AND I HATE TO BE RUDE BUT UNTIL I GET MY COMPUTER FIXED I CANT CONTACT ANYONE, BUT IF ANYONE HAS A QUESTIONS FOR ME JUST ASK ME IN MY REVIEWS OK?**

**AS FOR ALTAIR PILOTING AGAIN…. CHANCES ARE VERY HIGH!**

Chapter 14

Anavrin?

The next few days went oddly smooth. Altair's nightmare's seemed to stop for the most part, which was a great improvement. But the occasional nightmares he had he ignored for the most part… he kinda knew that ignoring his dreams may come back to bite him in the butt one of these days, but still he had other things on his mind. Everlight too start with…

Everlight was very easy to get along with, after she had regained her strength with some decent food, she became as energetic as Altair. Though she was much shyer than he was, and usually just followed him around, she was still fun to be with though. Wraith however was smart enough to warn everybody that since Altair and Everlight were together, Altair was going to be a little more active in the "Practical Joke" department as well as his' "Invention" department… apparently they were great friends and often came up with very creative and resourceful pranks and gadgets... "Great Anavrin, save us all…" Were Wraiths exact words for this situation.

Another interesting thing that took place was when Everlight received her magic cloak. The day after Everlight arrived, Setis came over and had another one of his magical cloaks with him. **(Seriously… how does he always show up exactly when he's needed?) **and gave it to Everlight.

Everlight's human form shocked everyone. To start off she was albino, accept for her eyes… her eyes were a radiant majestic blue, she also had long white hair but it stood out like four spikes where her ears were. But nothing was more baffling than those eyes… it was almost as though you can lose yourself in them… her birthmark of crescent moon almost looked silver on her white skin as well… The second Setis saw this **(Her eyes and birthmark that is)**, Molly could swear he paled… of course it was Wraith who was the one with the answers…

"Perhaps the factor that Everlight falls into our rare Caster class, she'd be a rare human?" Wraith suggested, and everyone seemed slightly contented with this… accept Setis… he seemed very eager to leave after that….

Well now yet another day has ended. And the moon was now hanging high in the sky above the earth pit… casting its pure light down upon sleeping forms. Perhaps it was the moonlight… or something else… but if anyone looked at Molly while she was sleeping they'd swear her star birthmark was glowing with a silver light…

_**(Molly's Dream)**_

Molly had no idea where the hell she was…. All she knew was that she was in a cave alone… and off to the side was like some sort of shrine bathed in moonlight, the Moonlight was clearly shining on the area…. She walked over to the shrine like area and looked around. Yes it was a shrine of some-sorts…. A very bizarre shrine it was. Sticking out of the ground were eight strange staves each was a bluish, to whitish, to purplish in color, they were also easily as tall as she was, and they were jagged as though they were made to look like lightning bolts. And on top of each staff were large gemstones. A single different jewel on top of each staff, a ruby, emerald, topaz, opal, sapphire, diamond, amethyst, and pearl. Each jewel was glittering in the pale moonlight. In the moonlight itself small twinkling lights shone also in the light almost like they were small fireflies.

Molly didn't need to be told this was obviously a very sacred place… but to whom? Where was she exactly? Was she dreaming?

Suddenly she was aware of something else…. She wasn't alone.

Standing next to her was a very tall, very beautiful woman. She was indeed much taller than Molly, she was very thin, her clothes were long white robes, with a deep sapphire blue trim around the cuffs and she wore an aquamarine sash around her waist. She had long white hair that went down to her waist; her skin was also white as a pearl and as just flawless. On her right cheek was the birthmark of a crescent moon, on her left cheek the birthmark of a star… against her white skin the birthmarks shone with a radiant silver color. She had huge elf like ears that went back about 8 inches… her hands were hidden by her sleeves since the cuffs were so big.

But it was her eyes that got Molly's attention…. Her eyes shone with that same majestic blue hue that was so clearly reflected in Everlight's eyes, but something was different in this woman's eyes…

They held an unspeakable sorrow…

Whoever she was had been crying. Silently the woman moved into the center of the circle of staves and looked out through the hole in the cave ceiling. "It has begun again…" she whispered, her voice was clear and as beautiful as the ringing of a silver bell.

"W-What? What has begun?" Molly asked and the woman turned to look at her, her gaze was soft and she smiled.

"The Lord of Darkness has returned….. and the Trinity is broken… The Lord of Darkness has already gained much strength through a willing host…. Who is as twisted as he is… Through this host, he has destroyed countless lives on countless planets. The host bears a twisted dark light and brings suffering to all, even to his own people with his ill gotten throne, forcing them into war just to save themselves and their loved ones… while the throne's true heir who bears the burden of a divine light hides to save those he loves…"

"I… I don't understand." Molly said sadly, but the woman smiled.

"I can't tell you what to do Eva… you bear a scar upon your soul that brings you much pain. But understand, I chose your mother to receive my blessing… when she passed, the blessing was passed to you." The woman said and touched the star mark on her cheek, where Molly also touched her own star birthmark, completely shocked of what she was hearing. "I mean no one any harm… but I'm trapped here due to a sealing spell placed upon me…" She said and looked up back at the moon. There was a few minutes of complete silence, Molly knew she had to be dreaming! She had too! There was no way this was real! Because if this was real, then-

"What's worse is that the Trinity….my two friends… don't even know that the Lord of Darkness has returned..." The woman spoke again… more to herself than to Molly, she'd probably even forgot Molly was there at that.

"My friend who may be considered by so many evil…. Is not… he was never evil; he was not the one who imprisoned me here. He searched for me until he collapsed from the toll it took on him after the fierce battle with the Lord of Darkness…" after those words left her mouth Molly could swear she saw tears begin to fall from her eyes.

"But the curse he is forced to bear… made others afraid, and through fear, distrust follows… the distrust of shadows led to the fear of what he may become… but he never should have been locked away. I wish I could help him… for in the darkness he has grown to hate... and hate may be what turns a god… to a demon."

"All I can do now is watch…. Watch and hope, but I know the jewel is safe. Protected by someone who doesn't know its true purpose but views it as a memoir of someone precious… though I am far away and trapped here in this sacred cave… and my true name forgotten, my magic was blessed into those with my marks… what magic I have will always be at your aid… my dear friends…"

"Setis… and Kanaletto."

_**(End Dream)**_

Molly woke with a start. It was still night outside and once her heart stopped thudding so hard in her chest. She tried to recap on everything that she just dreamt… of course now that she was awake most of the memories were gone but still… the woman in her dream…

"_Was that… Anavrin?"_


	15. Revelations

**Chapter 15**

**Revelations**

"Good Morning Wraith!" Molly said coming downstairs into the pits kitchen where Wraith was cooking breakfast. It had been several weeks since Molly's dream, and she'd mostly forgotten about it… her new family was always there to make her completely forget about everything else… In a way she felt like she'd already one the race of Oban, she had one great family with Rick as the mature and laid back older brother, Altair as her lovable, if not destructive younger brother. Wraith as the protective and kind older brother, who was a damn good cook at that. Even Rain was like a sister to her… a weird yet still fun to be around sister, but still a weirdo…. But families are supposed to be strange right? And with two Crogs, a crazy half Phyl, and Rick, it can't get much weirder... or better.

"Good morning Molly. Hungry?" Wraith asked and offered her a plate of food as she came in.

"Yeah, thanks!" Molly said taking the plate of food and sitting down at the table, joined by Wraith who sat next to her. Everlight was already there.

"You're one really good cook Wraith, could you please teach my dad how to cook?" Everlight said and Wraith chuckled.

"I remember having some of your fathers cooking once, it was…. Interesting…. I didn't know how pasta could just explode like that…. Did he ever figure out how that happened?" Wraith asked and Everlight shrugged. "My dad's great and he can do anything… accept cook... everything he cooks either blows up, or just tastes really, really bad."

"It can't be that bad." Molly said and Everlight looked at her nervously and rubbed the back of her head and giggled a little.

"One time last year dad cooked something…. I think it was supposed to be meatloaf, but dad had to shoot it 12 times with his plasma cannon before it was safe to eat… we ordered out that night." Everlight chuckled and Molly sweatdropped.

"Does your dad cook bad to Molly?" Everlight asked and Molly was silent for a minute then answered, "Yeah… he couldn't cook to save his life."

Wraith knew. Wraith knew Molly's secret… about her being Don Wei's daughter. He'd confronted her about a week ago and asked about it. She was startled that he knew, but he said that it was pretty obvious that she was trying to gain his acceptance… and that he could also hear her when she muttered under her breath sometimes… Wraith was also aware that Don Wei was a huge disappointment to her… not even knowing she was his own daughter. That was just sad… Molly would never forget the conversation they had after that….

_Where so much was brought to light…_

**(Flashback)**

"Don Wei is a huge creep and a jerk… you deserve better Molly… is that your real name?" Wraith asked and Molly shook her head.

"My real name is Eva… but please just call me Molly for now… and Don Wei is one big jerk." Molly muttered and then growled and kicked the tree they was standing under… it was late at night now and the only real source of light were the moon and stars… and Wraiths gold eyes.

"Sometimes… I wish that the race wouldn't end… so I'd never have to go back to Earth... no one cares especially not Don Wei. He doesn't even care I'm his daughter, hell he doesn't care he HAS a daughter." Molly muttered and looked at Wraith.

"How 'bout you? When the race is over what are you and Rain, and Altair going to do?" Molly questioned. Wraith was silent for a while seeming to be thinking about this himself.

"I… I actually thought we would find some way to hide out on Earth… From what I've heard… the invasion won't happen for a few months…" Wraith said and Molly looked absolutely horrified.

"The Crogs are gonna invade Earth again!" she yelled taking a step back from Wraith.

"Not for a few months anyway…" Wraith said glumly… "Please do not look at me like that, I cannot control what happens."

"Why?" Molly said weakly then her expression turned angry, "Why?! Why must your kind attack us!? Why did Jordan have to lose his father to your kind! Why must, god knows how many other good people lose their loved ones? Why? Why must our kinds suffer and die in a war that has no purpose!" Wraith was completely silent… a good while passed before he said anything.

"Because… we're suffering… my race, the Crogs… are suffering." Wraith whispered and Molly looked taken back. "What?"

"Our planet is dieing… you see the reasons we need to invade other worlds… is because our planet… and our race are dying." Wraith said though Molly still looked confused.

Wraith sighed. "In ancient times… our planet was virtually lifeless and our people lived in darkness… until our goddess Anavrin bestowed a gift… a power actually, unto the royal family, our Emperor…The Wings of Light… also referred to as The Guardian Wings."

"Wings of Light?" Molly questioned. "What are they?"

"As the name refers to they are wings, but not quite like angel wings. They bear a somewhat resemblance in structure with the birdlike feathers and everything… but they are almost like pure light rather than actual wings. And with this gift, the wings lit our skies and our planet became lush and beautiful, but the gift was solely for the royal family, but we've never had problems with that…."

"Until recently that is anyway…"

"It's said that when the Emperor had only one child, since that child would be the only heir to the throne they would receive the "Mark of Light" on their shoulders and thus would inherit the Guardian Wings, and the throne. If the Emperor had more than one child though he would wait for a long time and then choose which one is fit to rule and that child would be the heir to the throne… it doesn't have to necessarily first born in order to inherit the throne."

"How could wings light the skies of an entire planet?" Molly questioned and Wraith continued.

"The wings are not constant external limbs and are said to exist outside the body only when the Emperor wants them to be outside… The Guardian Wings also were not directly tied to the Emperor's body either. To light our planet, they would detach and grow absolutely huge… about the size of one of our Trident Carriers… which is about the length of 4 Earth Carrier ships lined up from front to back in a straight line, **(In other words they get frickin huge!!!) **and would be found positioned outside the highest tower in the Emperial castle. They made our planet as bright and as clear as the skies on Earth."

"What does this have to do with your planet dieing? If these wings are like the life force of your planet did they go out or something?" Molly questioned.

"You might say that… Our previous Emperor was thought to be the best we ever had… he arranged a peace treaty between us and Naurasia that is thankfully for Aikka's sake still holding… but his oldest son Kairogon, our current Emperor… came straight from the deepest part of hell. He is cruel and cunning… we don't know why his father chose him of all things! He was said to have a brother… I don't have a clue who he is though. But before the traditional celibration that would announce who would obtain the Mark of Light… just as he was about to announce which of his sons would inherit his throne when he retired…. Kairogon killed his father and his mother, with his septre… nobody knew where the septre came from but since then he's never been seen without it… he licked his fathers blood off the septre and announced himself Empereor… and showed wings."

"But they weren't the Wings of Light… They were the Wings of Darkness now… somehow he'd tainted the Wings of Light… and through the tainted wings poisoned our planet… we now live surpressed in our own homes… our only way out is to invade other worlds and bring supplies back… he lets few leave our home world, unless it is to conquer another world… of course after a few years the planet we've come to is in just as bad shape as our home planet… for us it's the fact we cannot de-throne him… so many have tried… all have died in a horrible fashion… we are prisoners in our own home world… and we cannot do anything about it."

Molly was silent. This was the reason for the Crogs aggressiveness? Was their goal merely survival? Molly felt awful about yelling at Wraith, he couldn't do anything about an invasion.

"I'm sorry Wraith… I-" Molly began but Wraith silenced her.

"It's alright Molly… My race might just be dooming itself but I will never let anything bad happen to those I care for… I will protect you, Rain, Altair, and even Jordan with my life. You are all part of my family and I'll protect you with my life… I promise." Wraith said and the two of them walked back into the Earth pit…

"What about your father?" Molly asked as they approached the pit. And Wraith's long ears suddenly became jagged in anger. **(He looks like a Neo shadow heartless from kingdom hearts 2)**

"That is another story… for a later time." Wraith said in a menacing tone and walked into his room and slammed the door.

His tone sent a shiver down her spine..

**(End Flashback Next Chapter will continue from current time in this chapter when they're eating breakfast)**


	16. Trouble Brewing

I'M SORRY… I DON'T QUITE UNDERSTAND… WHAT EXACTLY IS KROSS'S EXPLODING DOUGHNUTS?

Chapter 16

Trouble is Brewing

"AHA!" Altair said running into the kitchen but unable to put the brakes on in time and skidded into the wall making a very loud thud as he contacted it. Making Wraith, Molly, and the recently woken Rick, Rain, Stan, Koji, Don Wei and Jordan sweatdrop. "I've got it! I've got it!" he said merrily waving a large piece of what looked like scrap metal in his hand.

"What is it?" Jordan questioned… Wraith suddenly had a bad feeling growing in his guts.

"Remember that intruder who broke in here and tried to rig the Arrow to blow up?" Altair asked. That had just been two days ago… whoever it was got away but…. Rain was pleased with the fact that she had discovered the intruder, and although he had gotten away, it also pleased her that whoever it was would probably have a more than a little difficulty chewing their food for a few weeks as well as being able to breathe through their nose.

"Yeah we remember… But we so repaired the Arrow. What's important? "

"Our friend the intruder left something behind!" Altair said and held up the small shard of metal… upon closer inspection it was reveled to have a small red stain on it… blood."

"Must've come from when I roughed the guy up." Rain noted.

"So what…" Don Wei said flatly. "I have my doubts whether this planet has the technology for DNA analysis… even though you have a sample, it's still useless."

Altair began to giggle, then burst out laughing as though what Don Wei had just said was the funniest thing he'd ever heard… Jordan looked at Molly and sweatdroped.

"Did he have coffee again?" Jordan asked and Molly shook her head no.

"He did have 3 chocolate bars for breakfast though…" Molly said sadly and everyone sweatdroped… knowing what that meant all to well.

"Should we be worried?" Molly questioned and Wraith nodded yes.

"We'll just use "MY" DNA analyzer!" Altair said happily and Koji looked a little stunned.

"You have a DNA analyzer?" he questioned and Altair nodded very quickly.

"Yep yep yep! It's in my lab!" Altair said and looked at Everlight. "Come on lets show 'em Everlight!" Altair said and the two of them ran upstairs followed by everybody else.

"Should we be REALLY worried?" Rick asked and Wraith looked at him. "This is when my brothers gift shines… be EXTREMELY worried."

Now the entire group was inside one of the other spare rooms… but it looked just like it always did… nothing in particularly special… but just when everyone began to think this was just one of Altair's fantasies dreamt up while he was in sugar crazed mode, Molly noticed Altair had been knocking on a small part of the wall off to the side.

"Stupid lever… it's stuck again!" Altair growled and both he and Everlight began to pull on what looked like a small handle on the wall. After a few moments they both fell backwards and the lever was switched on. The room suddenly began to open hatches on the floor and walls… and extremely high-tech looking computers and other machines came out… everyone's jaws dropped. Two large computer chairs popped up and Altair and Everlight sat in theirs and Altair began to type into the biggest computer and everything else suddenly hummed to life…

"A-Altair where did all this stuff come from?" Molly said weakly, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"I built it!" Altair said happily and Molly's eyes widened.

"There is no way that you, a nine year old could possibly have built this! There are some scientists that aren't that smart!" Don Wei growled and Altair glared at him angrily.

"I did build this stuff! And I have got an I.Q bigger than most planets! So don't talk down to me!" Altair growled. "Now as for our little saboteur…" Altair said sliding the sample into a little box attached to the computer scanner. Pictures began to appear on the screen of large chains of DNA…. The words were coming and going so quickly that Molly's eyes couldn't keep up… but apparently Altair could because he suddenly stood up on his computer chair.

"I am a master at Forensic Science! I can identify any different spliced DNA patterns and trace them back to their original source in under 15 minutes! I can identify partially decomposed matter with only about half its original content in genetic codes and structure! I will find the one who tried to sabotage our team… and I will smite him with all the powers of Forensic Science! MWAHAHAHAH!"

Everyone is officially creeped out now…

"Altair you're acting creepy again." Everlight said and Altair sweatdroped and nervously rubbed the back of his head.

"Heh heh heh, I kinda went off into evil genius mode sorry… Anyway," Altair said typing furiously into the computer. "I have the culprit identified." He said as the picture of an alien that closely resembled a large scaly, lizard, fish, hybrid thing with huge bat like ears, small red eyes, large muscular arms with three webbed fingers, and thin strong looking legs, and a long and lethal spiked tail…. And a mouth and head like a piranha.

"A Gyreo, from Gyreona." Wraith said looking at the screen. "These guys have really nasty tempers. And they tend to play for keeps. Meaning if you're in their way they'll due whatever it takes to take you out so they can win… not surprising, you were supposed to race them tomorrow. No doubt they'd pull something like this right before you had to race… but it looks like we have a good enough case for them to be disqualified now."

"My thoughts exactly!" Setis said appearing out of nowhere, and making just about everybody jump in shock. "I will have the Gyreos disqualified immediately! Attempting to take the opponents life even through sabotage is strictly forbidden!"

"How did you get in here?" Don Wei questioned.

"I walked in of course… I declare it that the Earth team wins due to their opponents' disqualification! Congratulations!" Setis said cheerfully and again seemed to just disappear into thin air again.

"You know… that little guy is seriously creepy sometimes… nice…. But creepy" Rain said and everybody nodded in complete agreement.

**_(Later that night)_**

"You know I may like to cook, but it is equally nice to enjoy a meal out once in awhile." Wraith said finishing his third bowl of ramen and requesting his fourth. He hadn't really wanted to cook tonight so he, Rain, Altair, Everlight, Molly, and Jordan went out to the bar to eat. Rick had just gone out apparently not going to have anything to eat. But poor Stan and Koji… they had to endure Don Wei's veggie surprise… Molly had made a mental note to pick up one very good anti-acid while they were out.

"Yeah, this stuff is good… and I just get tired of staying in the Earth pit sometimes. Don Wei doesn't exactly provide a very welcoming atmosphere." Rain noted finishing her drink and also requesting another.

"I'm with ya on that Rain." Molly agreed and watched as Jordan tried to match wits with Altair and Everlight… he was also sadly loosing quite badly. But something made the bar go quiet and look at who had just entered the bar…. Five Crogs had just barged in… Toros was not among them. But they were every bit as intimidating as he was. They sat down at a table farther back in the bar area… everyone went back to minding their own business.

Molly gulped. It was just something about the air that surrounded those Crogs. It was different than Wraith and Altair… it was darker… crueler… It was the kind of aura that indicated dark intentions. But still, Wraith and Altair had proven that not all Crogs were bad… so in spite of everything Molly was going to give them the benefit of the doubt… for now...

However… Molly did have the doubt confirmed when one of the five Crogs, a large brutish looking male, with green armor that seemed to vary in colors from acid green on the shoulder plates and sides to jungle green around the chest and stomach section. Came over and began to provoke Wraith.

"You're in my seat human, move!" The Crog commanded. Wraith looked at him with laziness written all over his face… and then focused back on finishing his bowl of ramen… completely ignoring the somewhat startled Crog.

"I don't see your name on it… if you want this seat so bad make me move."

The entire bar went silent. In complete and utter shock. Molly nudged Wraith with her elbow. "You're supposed to be keeping a low profile… don't provoke him!" She whispered so she was just barely audible, but she knew Wraith could hear her… ears like his don't miss much. However this warning was a bit late to say the least.

"Pathetic human! I'll teach you some respect!" The Crog roared and went to punch Wraith… big mistake. Now Wraith was not as tall as a full grown Crog but he was still tall… and very, very strong.

Wraith caught the punch with one hand…

Wraith sighed and finished the last of his ramen… and then glared at his attacker. His eyes may not be Crog eyes… but they almost glowed as he glared at the still stunned Crog… They sent a shiver down his spine.

"Get out…" Wraith said in a sinister tone. But the Crog regained himself and was getting ready to strike Wraith with his other hand…

….When Wraith snapped his wrist.

The Crog was momentarily stunned with pain, and Wraith kicked him hard in his stomach with enough force to sending him flying into the table that the other four were sitting in and was knocked out cold. There was a moment of stunned silence, Molly was completely shocked. Wraith, who showed virtually no aggression accept for the first time she met him where it had been needed to save them. And one or two other times aimed mostly at Don Wei this was a real first. But as it is, the other Crog did bring this on himself though…

Three of the other four Crogs stood up and circled around Wraith whom had stepped into the center of the room and stood as still as a statue… not worried at all. The other one looked like he didn't want to get involved but still wanted to see the fights outcome watched.

"Who do you think you are human?!" One of the Crogs, who was virtually identical to the other one growled. The only difference was that he had deep silvery, grey armor on with huge spiked shoulder plates. "Do you have a death wish?!"

"You know I really don't care." Wraith said flatly. "First, your friend brought that on himself. And second, I said it before and I'll say it again-" Wraith never got to finish his sentence because at that moment a Crog that had been off to the side attacked him. But Wraith smoothly dodged and kicked his attacker hard in the stomach sending him back in shock and completely winding him.

"You certainly aren't very bright are you?" Wraith said to the Crog he just winded and he glared at Wraith angrily… then they all took out blades and began to advance on Wraith who didn't move… he was practically staring death in the face and he wasn't even so much as backing up… Wraith was either very, very brave… or very, very stupid.

"Wraith catch!" Altair yelled and threw something to his brother. In the blink of an eye Wraith had jumped up and caught what Altair had thrown to him… and he assumed his fighting stance.

He now had his War Talons.

And then Wraith went on the offensive. The three opposing Crogs were on the defensive. Just barely able to defend themselves from Wraiths onslaught of claws that were still scoring vital hits and drawing blood and cutting through their armor like it was paper. One Crog with like a dark purple armor fell onto the floor from a severe blow onto his chest… he wasn't dead just in a great deal of pain from his wound. The Crog with the brown armor was kicked into the wall and apparently lost consciousness. Then it was now just Wraith and the other Crog with the grey and silver armor and he made a desperate effort and went to stab Wraith in his chest… but missed and drove his knife into Wraiths shoulder instead. And Wraiths talons were now at his throat…

"That's enough!" The Crog who had not participated in the fight said and walked over.

"Evraous… accept your defeat. The human has clearly bested you Xinaro, and Kourda in combat… make your loss honorable and accept your defeat. This Crog was much bigger and apparently older and held more authority than Evraous… though doubtedly held a rank higher than Toros.

Evraous growled and stood up. "You win human… for now." He growled and picked up his two fallen comrades and he and the other Crog also carrying the other Crog whose wrist Wraith broke outside….. as soon as they left cheering erupted from every other alien in the bar and Wraith bowed humbly.

Molly had a bad feeling trouble wasn't far behind now….

_**(Meanwhile)**_

"Stupid human how did he get so strong?!" Evraous growled as he and the other Crog were returning to the Crog pit.

"What concerns me is…" The other Crog muttered.

"Is where he learned to fight like the Black Demon… named Wraith."


	17. Shadows of the Future

Chapter 17

Shadows of the Future.

It had been several days since the incident in the bar. Everything was alright, or at least it seemed to be that is. Overall, Molly had been expecting the Crogs to retaliate after what Wraith did… but they hadn't… possibly because they didn't want to risk disqualification. Or at least that's what Molly thought… and hoped. But she wasn't going to think about that tonight. Tonight was the halfway point, exactly ½ of the races where over with for the preliminaries and a small celebration was being held in town and she had every intention of enjoying it! And she was. She, Rain, Wraith, Altair, Everlight, Jordan, Stan and Koji were now out walking through the Skrub village while Don Wei stayed back at the pit and Rick went his own way.

"Ah, this is the good life." Rain said taking a bite out of a cherry cake she'd gotten.** (Appearently a delicious and rarely made snack food among the Skrub people)** "How 'bout you Altair? That's your 9th cherry cake."

"I know! They're delicious!" Altair said finishing the cake in a matter of seconds after starting it.

"Hey, look!" Everlight said pointing a little off of the road. A large stone pillar stood there hidden in the shadows of the trees and covered in dirt and moss… Everlight walked over to it and began to brush off some of the dirt and moss…. Revealing the Timeless Ones symbol.

"That strange crest again…" Koji noted. "I guess that it might have some sort of significance to be here… but I wonder what?"

"It is sorta weird when you think about it." Jordan stated. "Isn't kinda weird when this crest here is the same as the one on the Crogs planet?"

"It's not just on our planet." Wraith said. "It's been seen on many other planets as well. Byruss, Wetta, Gumaria… and many others and the lore of The Cataclysm remains the same… the same story on multiple planets. I have my doubts whether it's just a coincidence."

"Creepy…" Stan muttered.

"There are other things of far stranger nature in this vast universe." A strange raspy voice said out of nowhere.

The group wheeled around to see a small shriveled creature standing there, supporting itself with a staff. Most of its face was hidden beneath an elegantly decorated hood only its lower jaw and some strands of green hair were visible as well as a pair of blind white eyes; its skin was ragged and pale brown, its body was covered in dark green robes and small precious jewels… and it sounded like it was female.

"Do not be afraid children…. I am but an old creature who but wanders and sees and tells." The creature said its raspy voice was harsh and yet gentle. The blind creature was silent for a few long moments before it finally spoke.

"I see an upcoming difficulty in store for you… an unlikely and powerful ally… who's greatest wish may be nothing more than complete oblivion…for himself." The creature said and turned and focused its blind eyes on Wraith and Altair.

"There is a great warrior who shuns his destiny of leadership in order to protect those whom he loves so much… The one whom you hold such a bitter grudge… for hurting you and your brother… you spite but the wrong person." Wraith growled angrily at the creature.

"I believe I know what you're referring too… and I can assure you… I spite the right person." Wraith growled getting odd glances from everybody around him. The creature nodded and walked over to the stone pillar and stared at it for a few moments before looking up at the nights sky.

"I see that a grave and evil power has returned… for over 300,000 years it was forced into silent slumber… and was dormant. But now the evil has gained a host… and drains life from all it touches." The creature said and tuned its attention toward Molly.

"Even if the first host falls and all seems well… even when the light has returned… a terribly scarred and lonely heart may finally crack in pain and sorrow… and rise to be a great and terrible threat… but even if this occurs… you must always remember something of extreme importance… In order to be victorious in the true battle… you may need to look at a situation… and the name of light… backwards." The creature said and Molly nodded numbly not understanding a word that this old creature was saying.

There was a long silence before Wraith and Jordan softly nudged Molly away… Molly cast a quick glance behind her… The old creature was gone…

_**(A Few Minutes Later)**_

"Oh man, that was freaky!" Rain said as the group continued on their way into town and away from that creature. Rain was currently walking ahead of everyone else and talking back to them.

"Yeah…" Molly said her mind still brooding on what that creature had said. But Rain suddenly stopped short causing a slight collision of everyone suddenly bumping into her.

"Are you ok Rain?... Rain?" Wraith asked but upon her blank expression and lack of response he waved his hand in front of her… then everyone looked at exactly what it was that was mesmerizing her… and sweatdroped.

There was Para-dice's ship, its digital cat face smiling broadly… there were bright lights flashing around…there was loud music playing…. there was a large group of different aliens watching… and there was Para-Dice…

…_. And there was a Dance Dance Revolution contest…_

"I've died and gone to heaven…" Rain said dreamily

"Oh……….………crap…." Wraith muttered only to have his arm roughly grabbed by Rain. And to be dragged unwillingly into the contest.


	18. Dance Time!

**(DOES THE DANCE OF OVER 100 REVIEWS!) **HOLY CRAP!!! I NEVER THOUGHT THIS STORY WOULD BE SO POPULAR! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! BUT I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE CRAPPINESS OF THE DDR CONTEST… I WAS NEVER VERY GOOD AT THESE TYPES OF SCENES…

Chapter 18

**Dance Time!**

"Meow! Meow! Sorry you lose! But don't feel bad, meow, I'm the champion of DDR! I'll never lose!" Para-Dice chuckled as her defeated adversary walked away in a huff.

"Anybody else want to challenge me? The unbeatable Para-Dice?" Para-Dice asked waiting for her next opponent if there was one.

"We'll take you on!" Rain said dragging poor Wraith along as well. The second that Para-Dice saw her new opponents she began to laugh.

"Okay, Who the heck, and what the heck, are you? You're funny looking!" she giggled.

"I'm Rain and this is my pal Wraith! I'm a half breed mix between a Phyl and a human! And he's a Cro- I mean he's a pure breed human… heheheh." Rain said quickly saving her butt… Wraith wanted to just crawl into a very deep hole right then…. But Para-Dice seemed content with that answer.

"Well, I'm just gonna let you play your game an-" Wraith said as he started to walk away but Rain grabbed his large ears and pulled him back to the DDR platform.

"Oh no you don't!" Rain growled as she continued to drag Wraith back. "It's fun! Lighten up and have some fun! What's the matter can't dance?" She asked and forced him onto the platform. Wraith sighed in defeat. Rain was his very strange friend who seemed to enjoy tormenting him with this kinda stuff… but she was also his best friend at that… and secretly it did kinda look like fun… Kinda…. In a painful way…

"He's probably being smart." Para-Dice said programming the game. "I'm undefeated! Save yourselves the humiliation and give up now!"

"MWHAHAHAHA A worthy challenger at last! I'm undefeated on Earth! You're probably the only worthy challenger left! But prepare to lose! Bow to the supreme overlord of DDR!" Rain said taking her place on her platform.

"Meow, two champions meet in battle! But I will win birdy girl! Meow!" Para-Dice said and both she and Rain glared at each other making flames appear between them… poor Wraith was sweatdroping in the background

"That's it Kitty girl….SUDDEN DEATH MODE! Put it on the toughest level you got! Winner is the divine DDR champion of the universe! MWHAHAHA!" Rain laughed manically as Para-Dice put it on the toughest level.

"MWHAHAHA, MEOW! I've finally got a challenger with potential at last!" Para-Dice laughed taking her position on her platform as digital numbers appeared on her ship counting down from 10.

"I don't like this… I don't like this one bit." Wraith said as the countdown neared zero. "… why do I have the feeling I'm gonna get hurt?"

_**The game began…**_

"Wow…" Molly said as she watched as Para-Dice and Rain began to dance. "They're good." She noted but then cast a glance at Wraith… he was doing surprisingly well, his movements were coordinated and he actually looked like he knew what he was doing.

"YEAH! GO WRAITH! GO RAIN!" Altair and Everlight were saying next to her and watching as the trios movements became faster and faster, and the music was becoming louder and louder!

"Molly?" A voice yelled from behind her and she turned around to see Prince Aikka there holding his hands over his ears as though to shield them from the loud music. Instinctively she gave Altair a little tap on the shoulder. And he looked up saw Aikka and nodded but then looked like he suddenly remembered something. He whispered something into one of Everlight's ears and they walked off somewhere… keeping Everlight away from Aikka…. For his safety.

"Is that Rain and Wraith?" Aikka asked having to speak loudly in order for Molly to hear him over the loud music.

"Yeah! Apparently Rain dragged Wraith into a Dance Dance Revolution contest… He's actually not doing to bad." Molly yelled watching as Wraith began to move quicker and quicker to the beat of the music… Rain and Para-Dice where now neck and neck with each other moving like blurs as they danced to the rhythm… Neither showing any signs of fatigue… but there could only be one champion… and Neither were backing down.

**(Meanwhile)**

"What is it Altair?" Everlight asked as Altair led her away from the crowd. "Don't you want to watch your brother dance?"

"Nah, Wraith's pretty good at DDR… I just remembered though… I have something for you." Altair said and began looking around inside his backpack… which had been stuffed with over 6 dozen cherry cakes, 12 dozen chocolate bars, a few books, a couple of his little inventions, and then finally he pulled out what looked like a really tangled piece of string with something shiny hidden among the strands.

"Sorry it's kinda been sitting in my backpack for a few years. I wanted to give it to you for your birthday… but I guess it's kinda late though…" Altair said untangling the string after a few moments… then it was completely visible.

It was a very pretty crystal necklace…

It was plain but beautiful. It was a simple cord with a shining crystal on it… but you could tell that it was no ordinary crystal… it seemed to shine different colors from soft lavender, to deep blue… different hues of blue, purple, and a faint tinge of green. Everlight for a moment just stared at it in shock. It was so beautiful… perhaps one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen…

"Altair... Wasn't this your Moms necklace?" Everlight said shyly.

"Yeah it was… My mom said I should give it to the right person, and you're my best friend! If anybody should have it you should!" Altair said smiling… then was caught in a bear hug from Everlight.

"Thank you Altair!" Everlight sobbed into him "You really are my best friend too!" Everlight said breaking the hug allowing Altair to breathe…. Then he smiled that innocent little kid smile he was well known for and handed her the necklace.

"I'll never take it off!" Everlight said and placed it around her neck.

"Glad you like it!" Altair said happily. "Now let's go and dye Don Wei's hair pink!"

"Okay!" Everlight said following Altair back to the Earth Team pit.

**(Back At The DDR Contest… 1 hour later…)**

The music was so loud for so long that Para-Dices ship had bright swirly eyes! Most of the aliens had either left or were just sticking around to see who one… due to the factors that bets were being placed.

"T-T-This is **(pant, pant)** nuts! **(pant)** hell **(pant)** couldn't be this bad! **(pant)**" Wraith panted but his movements were still not losing their speed but were slightly less coordinated. "I've **(pant, pant, pant)** gotten soft…. Must… train…. Tomorrow! **(pant, pant, pant) **Wraith gasped… his speed was starting to slow now as well.

Para-Dice and Rain however looked clearly worse than Wraith. It was clear that they lacked the physical strength he possessed being a Crog and all… but they were refusing to give up…

"Why… don't you **(pant, pant)** give up **(pant)** birdy girl?" Para-Dice said weakly still moving to the dance rhythm…

"I **(pant, pant, pant)** won't give… up! **(pant, pant)**…. Oh shit…" Rain said and fell face first down on the ground… out cold.

"HAHAHAHA! I…. win……me-….ow" Para-Dice said falling face first also out cold…

"Can I stop now?" Wraith asked finally stopping dancing and turned to look at the group… only Molly was there, the others had apparently left… and she was asleep. Wraith sighed… he was tried and his muscles were sore… he chuckled to himself. And moved off the DDR platform, and carefully picked up Rain, just as he was wondering what he was gonna do with Para-Dice she sat up apparently still asleep and began walking away… Wraith sweatdroped and watched as her ship flew in front of her and opened its door and Para-Dice walked in… still asleep. Her ships digital face smiled happily, but upon realizing that Wraith was staring completely lost it sweatdroped and "SHE SLEEPWALKS" was displayed clearly on the screen.

"Okaayyyy…. That ship is creepy…" Wraith muttered watching as the ships digital cat face apparently fell asleep… Wraith sighed brushing his disturbance off and picking up Molly and carrying both of them back to the Earth pit. He may be exhausted but lifting up both of them wasn't even hard.

"You know… now that I think back on it… even I have a hard time believing I was once the Black Demon… most feared warrior in the Crog Imperium since I was 14…" Wraith thought to himself frowning… but that was a skeleton he hoped would remain buried… he began to focus on the next day… upon entering the Earth pit he noticed Altair and Everlight sneaking out of Don Wei's room, a large bucket of pink paint they were carrying was quite apparently empty… Don Wei would definitely not be happy in the morning…

"Tomorrow I will be your team's trainer." Wraith muttered putting Rain in her room and Molly in hers… then proceeding to his own room and falling into a deep sleep.

**(Outside)**

"Tomorrow…" The blind creature said looking at the sky. "Tomorrow… a cage will break and a tormented soul will be set free… only to be placed into a prison of a different kind…" The creature said and smiled softly and a small tear slid down the creatures face…. And fell into a pool of water causing the water to ripple slightly…. When the water was still again… her reflection was different…

_It was the woman Molly saw in her dream…_

"It is sad I cannot be free to come to this planet as anything but this illusion…" The creature said sadly. "I pray the shadows you fear so much do not consume you…"

"I pray for the child whom you will be bound to… that the shadows will not take you…"

"I pray for you…" The woman said… and she just simply disappeared… as though she was never there to start with.


	19. A Storm is Brewing

OKAY… YEAH I REALISE THAT AS THE SHOW KEEPS PROGRESSING MY STORY KINDA IS… OFF TRACK A LITTLE BIT… MAY I JUST SAY THAT I'M SORRY THAT IT IS STRAYING OFF OF THE ORIGINAL PLOT… AND PEOPLE ARE GONNA HAFTA USE THEIR IMAGINATIONS AS THIS STORY PROGRESSES…OKAY? THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! THE MORE THE MERRIER!

**P.S** THE MAGIC BEADS EVERLIGHT USES IN THIS CHAPTER ARE HEAVILY BASED OFF OF THE **"BLIZZARD BEADS"** IN THE VIDEO GAME **OKAMI** TO ALL THOSE WHO KNOW THE GAME AND ARE KINDA FAR IN IT YOU'LL KNOW WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE… I'M JUST GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS NEEDED AND I DON'T OWN OKAMI OR THE BLIZZARD BEADS, THEY BELONG TO WHOEVER THOUGHT THEM UP… OKAY?

Chapter 19

A Storm is Brewing

It was about 7:00 in the morning when Don Wei discovered his hair had been dyed pink… and then the screaming began… Don Wei was absolutely furious at Altair and Everlight and was screaming his head off and nearly made Everlight cry… but when Wraith stepped in… Don Wei still didn't have the smarts to back off. But before Wraith could react Rain stepped in and handled the situation personally…. Namely she tied Don Wei up gave him another black eye, and gagged him with one of his own socks… again… and while he was all tied up, Rain had a good long laugh at his pink hair problem. Well later on in the morning when everyone woke up, Wraith announced he'd be training the group today…. Molly, Altair, Jordan, Everlight, and Rain were training under him… Wraith was a good trainer and everything… but his expectations were a little high, he was mostly judging them by Crog standards though.

"Let's just say if you were where in the schools Altair and I were stuck in… you'd all probably be at the bottom of your classes… without a doubt." Wraith said sweatdroping and Molly and Jordan nearly collapsed from exhaustion from running around the lake… for the 32nd time.

"HEADS UP!" Rain roared and crashed hard into Wraith causing them both to roll right into the lake. Rain had been practicing flying and… well… needless to say how that was going… her bird like form was kinda creepy… because unlike Spirit, she didn't have a mask like face and therefore no face was visible at all. But she assured them that she could see them even if they couldn't see her face. She had like zero luck flying though… and her chances without someone who could actually fly to show her how she probably wouldn't learn.

"I'm okay… Wraith you ok?" Rain said changing back to her normal form and walking out of the lake followed by a completely drenched Wraith.

"I'm fine." Wraith said momentarily taking off his cloak and ringing it out.

"Wraith what are you- aahh!" Molly started but was cut off as Wraith suddenly shook like a dog spraying everyone with water.

"Aahhh! Bad puppy! Bad puppy!" Rain said as she got sprayed by the water flying off of Wraiths body. Wraith stopped after a moment and sighed. "Let's take a break for a bit." He said and sat down against a tree and placing his cloak back on.

"This planet is really nice." Everlight commented laying flat on her back and looking up at the clouds in the sky. "Sometimes I think it would be nice to stay here forever…but…" she said sadly and Wraith sighed.

"You miss your dad don't you?" Wraith said softly and Everlight nodded.

"I really do… do you ever miss your dad Wraith?" Everlight asked and Wraith was silent his expression was completely emotionless… yet it hid incredible anger.

"No… I don't miss him one bit… you might also say that I hate my father with every fiber of my being. All through my first few months at my boarding school I waited… I waited like a fool for some explanation… some stupid reason to fall from the sky or something, I would have taken anything, ANY stupid reason… why he dumped me and my brother…AT TWO DIFFERENT BOARDING SCHOOL NO LESS!!!" Wraiths tone had suddenly become very menacing and his ears jagged in rage. "I was a complete fool… and after a while everything finally sunk in. We were just like every other kid in those schools… orphans…. Normally our kind, have strong family bonds with each other and about 96 percent of the boarding schools are composed of war orphans… their parents die due to war and they come to the schools for some sort of shelter and food, and the other four percent at least keep in contact with their families… but our father abandoned us… all I can say is this… if my father comes anywhere near me or Altair… I will kill him."

There was an uncomfortable silence now… Molly felt bad for Wraith and Altair, they had it just as bad as she did… Wraith probably had it worse. She still had some hope for Don Wei… but Wraith had apparently long given up hope for his father. It was really sad.

After a few moments but then Wraiths ears became their usual scythe appearance and his expression softened again.

"Everlight your father is a good Crog. Never doubt that, he's one of the few I would ever trust with my life… now onto training you… hmm." Wraith said standing up and looking thoughtfully at Everlight. Then he spied a large rock formation out in the lake.

"Okay then Everlight, see that rock out there? See if you can hit that with one of your magic blasts."

Everlight looked at the large rock and smiled "No problem!" she said and extended both her hands… and fired hundreds of blasts of blue light as quick as a machine gun and in under 4 seconds… the rock was nothing more than a pile of powder.

Wraith, Rain, Molly, Jordan, and Altair just stood there with there jaws open. Everlight was way more powerful than any of them could have possibly imagined. Everlight turned smiling towards the group. "Was that ok?" She asked shyly and everyone just numbly nodded yes.

"Okayyy… lets try something else…try accuracy… We're gonna throw rocks as far as we can and you have to blast them… okay?" Wraith said picking up a rock and hurling it into the sky… and about two seconds later it was blasted by Everlight.

This continued for several hours….

**(Meanwhile at the arrival platforms)**

Toros was definitely not in the best of moods to say the least… to start off, a few of his crew members had gotten drunk last night at the party and they were feeling the aftermath all morning long… Second one of the members of his crew drank the last of the coffee and he is the farthest thing from a morning Crog, and of course last but not least he'd had to endure a rather "Pleasant" chat with his brother… They may have been related… up to a point… but Toros was scared out of his mind of his brother… he also absolutely hated his brother at that. He'd always been afraid of his brother… but the pure hatred came after his brother slaughtered his parents.

And now he was completely dishonoring him by REPLACING him on Alwas!

**(Flashback)**

"_The prize for victory IS a wish… I believe it to be a wish upon none other than the legendary Jewel of Heaven! The divine gate key between the three planes of the universe! Its power is ancient, and could easily grant any pathetic wish as well as open gates to the different universal planes. I want that gate key back here! It is essential to our- I mean my plan." Kairogon said tapping his massive scepter on the ground…_

_The scepter was even taller than he was by about two feet, it was as black as Kairogons heart, ancient stains were dried around its jagged exterior… the mark of how he obtained his throne… and right at the very top of the scepter was what looked like some sort of a birds head… though its mouth was open with rows of massive jagged teeth and in its mouth was a ruby the size of a bottle cap, the birds eyes were large black diamonds that always gave Toros the impression that the scepter was watching him with that same arrogant, and evil look that his brother had all the time...only it was if possible an even deeper look of evil than what his brother had, its look…was complete and pure evil… Kairogon himself was at least nine feet tall and had a scar that twisted across his neck as though something had slashed him like a blade of some sorts… his eyes were like staring into the hot molten pools of hell, he looked even more muscular than Toros and wore deep red armor with a long flowing cape with the crest of a pair of demonic black wings, however the armors shoulder plates were made out of the skulls of his "disobedient" servants… and his most well known and well feared trait he had large devil like ears… The whole situation of Toros talking to his brother was indeed terrifying and extremely stressful. _

"_I have won every race so far Kairogon… I have never been beaten before…and I will not start now." Toros said not making eye contact with his brother… he hadn't been able to do that since he was four years old._

"_I'm making sure of that… You're being replaced."_

"_WHAT?! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Toros yelled without thinking._

"_I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!" Kairogon snapped then his expression suddenly became a menacing sneer. "You know brother… you have TWO very good reasons to do EXACTLY what I say… you wouldn't want anything to just suddenly and unexplainably happen for no apparent reasons… would you?" _

"_NO!" Toros screamed and took a step backwards. "I'll do whatever you say… Emperor Kairogon…" Toros said desperately, and kneeled before Kairogon's image on the screen…begging for forgiveness… and Kairogon laughed… and laughed… and laughed. _

**(End Flashback)**

Now Toros was here at the waiting dock waiting for his replacement… whoever it was. At this point he really just wished he was never born… he closed his eyes and sighed… why was it when everything in his life seemed to be going right, something always made it crash… like a falling brick on glass.

"Long time no see… Toros." A familiar voice spoke getting his attention. Causing him to crack an eye open to see who it was… then for his eyes to snap open upon realizing…

"Kross?! What in the name of Anavrin are you doing here?" Toros stuttered almost falling over. He hadn't even so much as thought of the possibility of Kross being his replacement.

"I'm replacing you… apparently your brother is worried about his interests in this race… so he sent me…" Kross said emotionlessly… but it was quite obvious he was very, very, very tired. Almost as though he hadn't slept in days. Toros would probably notice this quicker than other people because he knew Kross so well. They'd been friends for as far back as he could remember…wait.

"Kross you were requested to race here before I was… but you said that you couldn't… why are you here now if you didn't want to come in the first place?" Toros questioned leading Kross back to the Crog pit.

"I don't have a choice… anymore." Kross said in the same robotic tone as before…

"What do you mean? Anymore? And why the hell do you look so damn tired?" Toros questioned… Kross was silent for a moment before casting a long glance at Toros… the expression that reflected in his good eye was all that was needed before the reality hit Toros like a ton of bricks.

"What happened to Everlight?" Toros said almost afraid of the answer. He knew Everlight, and he knew how much she meant to Kross. And Toros had to admit, Kross had done a damn good job raising her by himself.

"I-I don't know… one day I came home… only to discover my home was completely trashed… and my only child…my little Everlight…was gone…" Then Kross's expression became one nothing short of an incredible anger and hatred.

"AND THEN I GO SEARCHING FOR HER! AND SHE'S NOT ANYWHERE TO BE FOUND! BUT THEN OUR BASTARD OF AN EMPEROR TELLS ME THAT IF I WANT TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY TO SEARCH FOR HER I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO COMPETE IN THIS GODDESS DAMNED RACE… BUT SO HELP ME IF WHEN I GET BACK, I FIND OUT WHO TOOK MY DAUGHTER I WILL TEAR THEM APART ONE PIECE AT A TIME!" Kross roared. And Toros nodded.

He knew that Kross always kept his threats…

**(Back with the gang)**

"Okay… it would appear that we're out of rocks." Molly said rubbing the back of her head and chuckling at the relieved Jordan.

"Thank god… my arms are tired!" Jordan said leaning against a tree and getting a weird glance from Rain.

"That's all it takes to wear you out? A mere 3 hours of throwing around a few rocks? That's sad." Rain said shaking her head.

"With your kind Rain." Wraith said looking at Rain. "The Phyl people naturally have more endurance in their arms than most creatures throughout the universe because of the strength that your kind requires to fly for long periods of time. It's not surprising that Jordan would get tired before you do."

"Really? I never knew that. That would explain how I was always able to beat everyone else in gym class!" Rain said happily.

"Jordan your arms hurt?" Everlight said walking up to him.

"They don't really hurt as much as their ti- huh?" Jordan gasped as Everlight's hands began to glow a soft blue color and she gently touched Jordan's arms, and the soft light traveled up his arms and relieved his sore muscles.

"How'd you do that?" Jordan questioned feeling his arms were no longer tired or sore.

"I can heal people… I'm still perfecting it but I think I'm getting better at it." Everlight said kindly and Jordan actually smiled and gave her a little pat on the head making her giggle a little bit… (**Who is he and what has he done with the real Jordan?!)**

"Alright… Everlight let's try something a little bit different." Wraith said getting Everlight's attention. "Let's see how well you can use your Celestial Beads." **(Is that what they are really called?)** Everlight gulped.

"Um… Wraith, slight problem there. I may be able to summon those beads… but controlling them is an entirely different subject altogether! I can't control them well at all! Daddy gave up trying to help me use them after I sent him to the hospital for the fourth time!"

"What are Celestial Beads?" Molly questioned.

"These are." Everlight said and suddenly was encircled by a ring of blue light that suddenly solidified into various teardrop shaped beads, each as blue as a mix of sapphires and clear ice crystals… they weren't small though, they were at least the size of Molly's fist, and they were constantly spinning around Everlight's body.

"They're beautiful." Molly said in complete awe at what she was seeing.

"Somehow they can control ice and water… I'm not quite sure how yet though. And I'll swear to Anavrin that it sometimes seems like they have a mind of their own!" Everlight said also looking at the spinning beads.

"Hey…. Hey… This is my chance!" Altair said to himself, an idea was clearly forming in his head. "Wait one minute." He said and ran back into the Earth pit… and came out a few minutes later swinging something.

The Timeless Ones Medallion…

"This stupid thing has been giving me nightmares… Everlight could you please blow it up?" Altair said careful to only touch it by its cord and not by the actual pendent. Everlight looked at it very carefully… then a worried look crossed her face.

"Altair… I really don't think we should mess with that." Everlight warned but Altair seemed to really want the stupid thing gone.

"Please Everlight! Blowing this thing to kingdom come may finally make my nightmares stop! Please!"

"Altair… okay… throw it and I'll blast it." Everlight said… but couldn't help but feel that this was an infinitely bad idea. The beads were also starting to feel funny… almost empowered by the pendants presence.

And that might mean that something bad was going to happen…

"Okay this is the last one for today's training… its getting dark outside." Wraith noted.

Altair swung the pendent by its cord and then threw it up into the sky as hard as he could and Everlight blasted it with an energy blast…

Everlight was right when she thought something would happen.

The pendent shattered into dozens of pieces that fell to the ground…but no sooner had Altair sighed in relief… than all the pieces began to glow a deep blood red color.

"A-Altair what's happening?!" Everlight yelled as the crystal pendent she wore around her neck began to glow with a blinding blue light and the Celestial Beads began to spin faster and faster, and before anyone knew what the hell was going on…

Than all the broken pieces… began to spin in a circular motion slowly growing faster and faster into a glowing red tornado whipping up a strong wind making everyone shield themselves… Everlight's necklace suddenly flew off of her neck and hovered in the center of the tornado glowing an even brighter, even more radiant blue then a sound rang through everyone's ears.

_The sound of a key turning in a lock…_

"What the hell is happening?!" Molly screamed as a sudden flash of brilliant white light temporarily blinded the group…

However when they opened their eyes… they wished they hadn't.

There… right in front of them… was some sort of portal. Leading into what looked like a prison. And there was what looked like one huge over glorified birdcage.

"Altair…" Jordan said calmly yet picking up Altair by the front of his armor and shaking him roughly "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" he roared as all of a sudden Everlight's Celestial Beads suddenly made a sound like a cracking whip and shot inside the portal…

_And broke the cage bars in a shining flash of blue light…_

Suddenly a voice rang through Molly's ears… the voice of the woman in her dreams.

"_I have said it before… whatever magic I have will always be at your aid…"_

"_The Celestial Beads of Ice… were mine… they are part of me."_

"_And may they set you free… Kanaletto."_


	20. Bound

Chapter 20

Bound

"What in the name of Anavrin? Could somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Wraith growled angrily as he watched something… something a hell of a lot taller than he was moving inside the broken cage.

"Well Wraith," Everlight said nervously… yet she was still surprisingly calm. "I think that when I blew up that pendent it opened some kind of rift… how exactly I don't know… and like I said those beads have a mind all their own, so-"

"Wasn't there something moving in there just a minute ago?" Jordan said dropping Altair **(Who thanks to Jordan shaking him so hard and so fast had bright gold spirals in his eyes)**, and looking through the portal that everyone had been momentarily distracted from watching… sure enough… the cage was empty. Everlight had a feeling that something bad was going to happen… and that feeling was getting stronger and stronger by the second. Then suddenly, something caught her eye. The crystal necklace Altair had given her… that had been glowing as bright as a supernova just a few moments ago… it was laying right near the edge of the portal… Everlight gulped, she had a strong feeling pulsing throughout her body that she just needed to get that necklace back… it felt almost like some other force was guiding her, telling her that she absolutely needed to get it back… slowly she inched towards it and grabbed it… but just as she was sighing in relief… it was a miracle she wasn't crushed.

Out of the portal came a huge clawed hand. And it almost crushed Everlight… but within a split second… Everlights instincts kicked in and she shot a magic blast that contacted with its hand. Whatever it was… made a sickening cry of pain, so horrible and loud that everyone had to shield their ears… Everlight ran and hid behind Rain. There was a moment of pause… then something very big and apparently very mad came into view.

* * *

Kanaletto's ruby eyes blazed an even deeper shade of red. At this particular moment he had just been, and rather painfully at that, convinced that he wasn't dreaming. Even he wasn't quite sure how the hell these kids… had opened a portal to his prison, let alone freed him… well mostly anyway… he still had the shackles around his neck and wrists… but the chains connecting them broke apart in the blast… so now he had free movement of his arms**… (A pleasure he couldn't remember the last time he was able to enjoy)**…but he knew the chances were highly unlikely that their actions were anything but accidental.

"Who has set me free? Tell me before I loose what little patience I have… and decide to kill you all." Kanaletto growled and began licking his bleeding hand… Just as Everlight was about to speak… Altair stepped in… covering for Everlight.

"Me, I was the one whom had your creepy necklace blown to bits! So you might say that I was the one who let you out! And what do you mean kill us? You'd think you would be happy we set you free!" Altair growled and everybody just stood there shocked. Even Kanaletto look a little surprised… though not in the least bit entertained.

"You've got some nerve kid. Especially since it seems that you're in no position to be sassing me." Kanaletto growled leaning down to get a better look at this little smart mouth.

"You're a scrawny little thing aren't you?" Kanaletto muttered practically poking Altair with his beak. Altair's eyes glowed angrily at him.

"You're not so high and mighty yourself! What kind of an idiot would get himself locked in a cage for goddess knows how long! Oh yeah," Altair said and suddenly hit Kanaletto's beak. "Don't call me scrawny!" Altair roared… Kanaletto growled a deep and menacing growl and a fireball appeared in his hand. And the portal behind him finally closed… he clearly wasn't going back that way. The burning flames reflected in his ruby eyes giving him a dark and hellish appearance.

"Clearly you don't know who you're speaking with kid. I am Kanaletto, Lord of Fire. I've been imprisoned for over 300,000 years… and as of right now… you're in my way."

"So that's why the Fire god disappeared…" Wraith thought to himself watching as these events unfurled before his eyes. "The Avatar must have locked Kanaletto up all those years ago after the Cataclysm!"

"What do you mean by we're in your way?" Jordan asked nervously and Kanaletto's eyes narrowed.

"Right now… what I want more than anything else in the universe… is revenge on The Avatar for imprisoning me all those years ago…" Kanaletto said casting a glance at the night's sky… "But the little bastard doesn't come out at night…" he said and suddenly the fireball in his hand got way bigger. "So I'll just have to improvise… I'll just light the night sky by burning this planets land and its inhabitants into ash!"

"You can't do that!" Rain roared angrily. "You can't just kill everyone because you're so angry at the Avatar! All life is far too precious for you to just go around and destroy it!" Of course that did nothing… just pissed him off even further.

"You think all life is precious? No… that's not true. There are beings that exist only to live a cursed existence… they are not precious, their lives are meaningless. They exist only to be feared and are forced to live in pain. Do you think that that kind of life is precious as well? I don't…" Kanaletto said emotionlessly.

"I pity you." Everlight said sadly, getting an angry glance from Kanaletto.

"You should pity yourself and your friends over me!" He snapped the fireball now looked like it was out of control. Tongues of flames licked at his injured palm though doing him no damage.

"I pity you… because you don't see life how we see it. I'm sorry you were locked up for so long, but-" Everlight said but was interrupted by Kanaletto.

"Save your speech kid, I don't want to hear it and I personally don't care-"but then he noticed something… something that made him stop dead cold…

"That crystal she's holding… No! It couldn't be!" He mentally screamed, absolutely horrified. But it was too late.

_Everlight said the magic words…_

"I wish that you could see through our eyes!" Everlight yelled… suddenly her crystal necklace began to glow with a shining purple light.

"You fool! What have you done?!" Kanaletto roared and threw the fireball that had been growing in his hand at Everlight. But before Everlight could do anything to defend herself, the crystal emitted tendrils of white light that absorbed the fire ball before it even got near her.

"No!" Kanaletto roared as those same white tendrils began to ensnare him… after a few moments… his physical form changed until he looked like nothing more than flames that was still ensnared by the white tendrils... The tendrils almost seemed to throw themselves back at Everlight … but something odd happened. A blue shield of light appeared before Everlight and the mass of fire and tendrils slammed hard against it. But bounced off in recoil… and started towards Wraith… Who felt like a deer in the headlights and stood perfectly still.

"Wraith! Get outta the way!" Altair roared and with all his strength shoved his brother out of the way… only to be the one… whom was struck by the flames. There was a blinding light, and a then force like a bomb blew everyone off their feet.

"ALTAIR!!!" Wraith and Molly yelled in union. As they watched as Altair as he was flung into a nearby tree… and Kanaletto was gone.

"What the hell just happened?" Rain questioned as everyone crowded around Altair asking if he was ok.

"Guys! I'm fine! Really I just got wailed by that stupid bird… Where is he anyway?" Altair questioned.

"I don't know Altair…" Wraith said sighing. "But you acted… foolishly there… if anything were to ever happen to you I wouldn't know what to do." Wraith said solemnly. And Altair rolled his eyes.

"Nothing's going to happen to me brother! I'm fine really!" Altair said happily putting his hands behind his head and laughing a little.

And the group accepted that, for the moment anyway… but Everlight didn't… and for the following few days she began to watch Altair even more closely than before… and with good reasons.

Everlight was already different for her kind, being a Caster and everything… but she knew in her heart that even for a Caster she was different. Her father had told her the story many, many times. When she was born, she was born almost as though she was asleep and the doctors had said she wouldn't live… they tried everything but nothing worked. So Everlight's mother, Celia thought of the only option left, and brought her to the Moon Shadow shrine… perhaps the most sacred place on the Crog planet, Everlight couldn't remember it because her eyes didn't open until her third month, like all of her kind but her father said that according to the lore and what he'd seen, Anavrin's eight staves were still embedded in the caverns floor. Well, Celia brought her there since it was said the place had healing powers… no sooner had Celia stepped into the cavern's light… did Everlight suddenly begin to stir… by Anavrin's power, Everlight would live. Her father always said that the crescent moon birthmark she had was a mark bestowed upon her by Anavrin herself… after a few months later… when she was nine months old she showed the signs of being a Caster. Possibly another one of Anavrin's blessings… however as she got older, she seriously doubted whether it was a blessing… among her classmates she was considered a freak, even the adults were stumped… how she managed to control such powerful magic at such a young age it had never even been heard of…. But all and all she had no friends… accept Altair… Thank Anavrin for Altair. He was the only one who didn't think her powers were frightening… he thought they were amazing. And Wraith, Wraith never had a problem with her powers either. He always babysat her and Altair at the same time so they could play together… he was always very responsible. **(I personally think though Kross hired him mostly because: (A) he was responsible, and (B) he worked cheap… at like 2 bucks an hour…) **and after spending year's together… Everlight knew him extremely well…

And knew his aura very well too.

Everlight had another power she could activate… it was something that every known Caster could do. See a creatures aura. For example, Molly emitted a light pink to purple aura, Rick emitted a more like a dark silver to grey aura, and Jordan's was an emerald green color. But Altair… Altair's aura had always been a nice sapphire blue color.

But after what happened… he now had two auras… one was his usual blue.

The other… was red.

Everlight knew that something wasn't right. Even if Altair didn't want to say anything… she knew that he knew something was different as well.

"Altair… what's wrong?" Everlight asked as they ate some small snacks that were in the fridge. Altair blinked nervously.

"Nothings wrong… I'm fine really!" Altair said walking out of the kitchen in a hurry. But Everlight was determined now and followed him out.

"Altair, I know you to well! Tell me now! What's wro-Ahhh!" Everlight began but suddenly screamed in pain as something seemed to electrocute her…

It happened so quickly nobody was ready for it…

Menikran…

Apparently he didn't learn from Wraiths warning… he'd shot Everlight with an electric gun, which quite obviously caused her a great deal of pain. And in a split second he and three of his friends had burst into the room… One held Everlight. And Menikran held Altair by his ears and with a gun to his head. And it took a split second for the rest of the Earth crew to show up. The second Wraith saw what was happening to his brother… his ears went jagged in rage and his eyes began to glow.

"I thought you'd be smart enough to heed my warning the first time." Wraith growled angrily but before he could even so much as take a step Menikran cocked the gun by Altairs head and that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"I did… and that's why I brought friends." Menikran growled and sure enough… The Gyreona team was all present… Korobast and probably a few others were not.

"Well this has the tables turned on you… and by the way." Menikran sneered… and shot Wraith in his chest.

For just a stunned moment Altairs heart stopped….

And something inside him… woke up… and began to squirm.

Altairs eyes went red.


	21. This Will End Badly

YEAH… SORRY, I KINDA DID BASE EVERLIGHT'S BACKSTORY OFF OF YUE IN AVATAR… I SHOULD HAVE PROBIBLY MENTIONED THAT EARLIER… SORRY! WELL HERE'S CHAPTER 21!

Chapter 21

This Will End Badly

"Wraith!" Rain and Molly yelled, catching Wraith as he fell backwards. There was a large bloody hole in his chest and he was rapidly coughing blood out of his mouth... Altair just watched as a pool of blood began to form around his brother's form… his brother... his good kind hearted brother… his family. Menikran would pay for this.

He would make him pay!

"We probably wouldn't have been able to break his spirit anyway… " Menikran chuckled sinisterly. And a few of the Gyreona team members suddenly backed away from Menikran who looked at them, puzzled.

"What's wrong with you?" Menikran said as one of the Gyreos seemed to numbly point to Altair… this got everyone else's attention as well.

Altair was glowing red… it seemed to flicker at first, and then it became constant, then steadily began to glow brighter and brighter as Altair clenched his fists, and closed his eyes in anger. Never had he ever been so angry before in his life. Then suddenly his eyes snapped open, but they were no longer their usual radiant gold color... Now they were a terrible blood red.

"I'm going to kill you!" Altair roared… but it wasn't Altair's voice anymore.

Wraith, in spite of his grave wound managed to weakly force himself to sit up, his blurry eyes still clearly reflected his fear. "My… my… brother… W-What's happening t-t-to… him?" Wraith choked, more blood flowing from his mouth like a river.

"Wraith, please you're hurt, don't move!" Rain said tears streaming down her face. As Wraith fell backwards into her… his strength was failing him fast.

"Are Crogs supposed to glow like that?" one of Menikrans kind, a smaller, thinner, blue male named Oten muttered to one of the nearby Gyreos, who just shrugged in confusion.

"I wouldn't try anything you little brat." Menikran threatened pointing the gun to Altair's head. "Unless of course you got a death wish." But a chill ran down his spine when those eyes… those large blood red eyes, fixed on him.

Altair wasn't there anymore.

Suddenly Menikrans hand grew very, very hot and he let go of Altair in a cry of agony. And he looked at him with a look of pure horror… as Altair just seemed to stand there. But that's when it happened…A deep red glowing haze encircled Altair's body shielding him from view, then it steadily began growing in size until it was about a good seven and a half feet tall. Then the glowing stopped…

The haze cleared and Kanaletto stood before them…

"W-What the hell are you?!" one of the Gyreos stuttered absolutely horrified.

Kanaletto did not acknowledge him… but turned his attention towards Menikran who gulped and aimed his gun at him and fired. Of course this was a basically useless motion because at that moment flames encircled his form and the blast disintegrated before it even got near his body. Then those same flames that appeared within a moments notice disappeared along with Kanaletto… Menikran growled and began to look rapidly around the pit, wondering where the hell that thing had gotten to.

"Where is it?!" Menikran growled his huge poisonous fangs exposed… "Where the hell did it go?!" he growled angrily looking at the petrified Earth team…

"Ready to die?" Kanaletto's cold voice slurred through Menikrans ears right before he found himself being held by the throat staring once again into those cold red eyes.

"I think that it seems fair for me to warn you that you've just earned yourself a first class ticket to hell." Kanaletto said and suddenly Menikrans head began to swell up like an over inflated balloon, blood began to pour out of his nostrils and eyes…and then after a painful moment burst apart and splattered his crew with blood and brain tissue. Kanaletto used his powers to shield himself and was completely clean.

"Let's see here." Kanaletto said turning his attention to the other petrified creatures that had been with Menikran. They were so petrified they couldn't even move. It was as though they were looking upon death in a physical form. "There are seven of you then… not even worth my time." He muttered creating a fireball in his hand and leering at the group of aliens who after regaining the feeling in their legs were now desperately scrambling for the exit.

"Die." He said simply before hurling the fireball at them… five were incinerated on contact and died instantly…however the other two were not so lucky. One of the Gyreos had massive burns all over his body… he was squirming rapidly and he was undoubtedly dying a very slow and painful death. Finally after a moment of watching, Kanaletto got aggravated and silenced him forever with another fire ball. The other was Oten, he stood weakly and made an effort to get away… only to be lifted up by his throat by Kanaletto.

"Any last words before you burn?" Kanaletto growled bringing the weak and petrified lizard creature very close to his beak. The creatures face was badly burned and was filled with fear but then all of a sudden… his face twisted in rage.

"Lord of hell…" he choked out and Kanaletto's eyes suddenly went wide with momentary fear… then suddenly turned an even deeper shade of red in complete and absolute rage. He held the squirming creature with one hand and his free hand suddenly became covered in a gauntlet of flames… he drove his clawed hand into the back of Oten's head and slowly ripped downwards until he was a little bit below the center of his back, then he tore his spinal column out and taking part of his skull out as well… killing him in his rage.

After a moment he calmed down. Then turned to look at the Earth team… They were all standing there looking positively horrified… accept Rain… she was to busy holding onto Wraith… who was almost completely gone, he was lingering just by sheer luck.

"_Please! Please I beg you! Save my brother! Somehow please Kanaletto save him!" _Altair's pleading voice rang through his mind… they were still connected only it was vice versa now.

Kanaletto now was towering over Wraiths fallen form… the dying Crogs eyes were blank and outta focus. And Rain was covering his wound with her hand, trying in vain to stop the bleeding but had no such luck… she growled angrily at Kanaletto thinking he might try to eat Wraith or something like that… Imagine her surprise when all of a sudden his hand began to glow a soft red color and suddenly placed it over Wraiths wound.

Wraith screamed in agony as he felt his flesh sizzle underneath Kanalettos hand. But the last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness' was his voice.

"_I'm not killing you… but nothing I ever do is painless."_


	22. Explanations

Chapter 22

Explanations

Wraith slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times because everything was so bright. Of course approximately three seconds after he opened his eyes… he was mauled by Rain in a bear hug.

"WRAITH! Thank god you're ok! You've been out all night! I was so worried!" Rain sobbed, Wraith felt like she was an inch away from crushing him…

"Rain…Stop! You're…choking…me!" Wraith choked and Rain released him from her steel like grip. Once Wraith was able to get his breath back he got a good looked at the other people around him; Rain, Stan, Koji, Rick, Don Wei, Molly, Everlight, and Jordan… but Altair was no where to be seen, and that was Wraith's primary concern.

"Where's Altair?" Wraith questioned… only to get a dark and cold chuckle from next to him. There was Kanaletto leaning his back against the wall, his expression was dark yet somewhat amused… and in his hand was a half empty bottle of vodka. Wraith jumped to his feet in spite of the terrible burning sensation he felt in his chest and glared at Kanaletto his large ears jagged in anger.

"What did you do to my brother?!" Wraith demanded eyes glowing menacingly.

"Your brother is alive… he's just trapped within me for the time being." Kanaletto answered flatly getting confused glances from everybody.

"What do you mean by he's trapped within you?!" Molly demanded. Kanaletto sighed and tossed the bottle of vodka over his shoulder… **(Which also flew out the window and nailed Groor in the head knocking him out cold.)** Then his hand began to glow with a faint red light, and he reached inside his own chest… and pulled out a very dazed Altair and dropped him on the ground carelessly.

"Holy goddess…" Altair muttered shaking his head a little bit, then he saw his brother standing there dumbstruck. "Brother! You're ok!" Altair said and started to run to Wraith… only after running about ten feet the most bizarre thing any of them had ever seen happened… Altair was running but he wasn't moving. It was like he was stuck on a treadmill or something. Altair apparently noticed this as well and began to run faster and faster… still not getting anywhere and only managing to tire himself out.

"That won't work." Kanaletto said watching Altair with entertainment. "You're stuck to me." Altair now had his turn to be mad… or in his case, absolutely furious.

"What do you mean I'm stuck to you?! What the hell did you do to me?" Altair roared angrily and Kanalettos eyes narrowed and began glowing a deeper red color.

"I did nothing!" he growled but then fixed his ruby eyes on Everlight. "But you did."

"M-Me? What did I do?" Everlight asked shrinking back a little.

Kanaletto closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm talking about your wish… you wished for me to be able to see through your eyes… but you didn't specify it anymore so that's how come this whole mess has taken place. Thanks to that damnable jewel."

"This?" Everlight questioned taking her crystal necklace off of her neck and looking at it. It was different now… it no longer felt quite as magical as it did a while ago.

"You don't know what that is do you." He muttered walking over and towering over Everlight who gulped… he was very intimidating even though inside she felt that he wasn't going to hurt her. "That… is perhaps one of the most powerful objects in the entire universe… The Jewel of Heaven."

Altair's eyes went wide with shock. "The Jewel of Heaven! That's what…" he began only to have the image of the devil eared Crog run through his mind again… causing a shiver to run up his spine… "Never mind." He said getting a questioning look from everybody.

"The gate key between the three universal planes…" Kanaletto muttered. "It's power is legendary… its capabilities range from opening the universal gates to granting wishes."

"Granting wishes?!" Molly yelled suddenly filled hope. "Can it bring people back from the dead?"

"It could… just not now." Kanaletto said opening his eyes. "It used too much power now, it needs to recharge. And that will take a great deal of time."

Molly growled in agrivation. She was so close! She could have brought her mother back by now… but then she cast a glance at Wraith who looked as equally disappointed as she felt… they probably had the same wish.

"How long will it take to charge?" Wraith questioned and Kanaletto shrugged. But Altair suddenly asked a very odd question**.(Or at least it seemed odd to everyone else that is)**

"What exactly are the three universal planes?" Altair questioned and Kanaletto suddenly went very quiet… then after a few moments sighed.

"The three planes of the universe… first there is the upper plane, that's Heaven… if that gate were to be opened one could be reunited with their lost loved ones… however, unlike if they were brought back from the dead there is a time limit to how long they can stay around… past that I don't know. Then there is the middle plane. It is like another universe that runs parallel to this one, many of the beings that once lived on Oban live there now…" he said but didn't continue for a moment… then closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. He was probibly hoping not going to go on past that.

"So… what is the third plane?" Altair asked wanting a response… Kanalettos eyes opened and he looked at Altair… his eyes were almost afraid.

"Hell… the third and hateful plane. All that exists behind that gate is evil. That's where only the most twisted creatures souls end up… Those lizard things I killed… probably didn't end up down there…… that gate should never be opened."

"Was…(**gulp**)… it ever opened before?" Rain questioned and Kanaletto nodded.

"Once before, some of the creatures that still live on Oban, their egos got to big for their own good… and they accidentally opened the gate to hell. The supreme overlord of the place… Goros… came through with his army and the universe was almost burnt away by his twisted sense of "Entertainment"… watching things suffer was nothing more than a game to him.'' Everyone suddenly had a chill run up their spines… Everlight most of all… probably because she could sense that Kanaletto was quite apparently scared to death of something very closely related to this particular topic. But suddenly he lashed out his spider like limbs in extreme aggravation.

"Enough of this conversation!" he roared in a rage_."I cannot bear thinking of those events that led to my birt-"_ he stopped himself before he could finish that thought and those spider like limbs on his back each side began to merge together creating two huge black angelic wings. **(Hey, he is a bird it could happen…maybe?) **

"What are you doing?!" Altair yelled as he found himself caught in Kanalettos bone crushing grip.

"I'm going to relax for a while, so shut up kid." Kanaletto growled and Altair suddenly found himself outside… and three beats of those giant wings later... in the sky.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!" Altair screamed as Kanaletto seemed to constantly increase his speed and then suddenly dove straight down… towards the ocean.

"Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!" Altair roared and just as those wings spread out catching a current… thankfully right before the crashed into the water. After a moment Altair calmed down. This guy seemed to know what he was doing… though that giant rock sticking out of the water didn't look like something you wanted to hit. After a few minutes Altair started to squirm uncomfortably at the factor Kanaletto was still going at break neck speeds towards that rock.

"Are you going to avoid that? it doesn't look like it is getting any softer..." Altair said glancing at Kanaletto... and suddenly his heart stopped.

"Zzzzz..."... he really wasn't kidding when he said he needed to relax. He was quite apperantly sound asleep!

Altair just stared at him for a few minutes... then looked back at that rock.

"Oh...crap..."

**WHAM!!!**

"I'll go get the ice..." Molly muttered and walked back into the Earth team pit.

And Wraith couldn't help but shudder at Rain who upon suddenly seeing Kanaletto fly... before the crash...had been grinning happily.

"I've just found my new flying teacher!"


	23. Trouble Follows Rain

Chapter 23

Trouble Follows Rain

"Owww…" Altair groaned as he held a large bag of ice to his head then suddenly growled and cast an extremely peeved look at Kanaletto who was also holding an equally large ice pack to the side of his head…

"You are a complete moron! You fell asleep! Why the heck did you fall asleep?!" Altair growled… Kanaletto glared angrily back at Altair.

"I was relaxing… to me, flying is very relaxing. It's been so long since I was even able to stretch my arms out, let alone my wings!" he growled angrily as his wings split themselves back into the spider like limbs that he normally had.

"Hey Kanaletto!" Rain said walking into the Earth pit followed by Wraith. "You seem to be able to fly pretty well! Teach me how!"

Kanaletto just stared at her for a few moments, then leaned against the wall and adjusted the ice pack on the side of his head. "I've got a big enough headache now… I don't need you giving me a bigger one." He growled angrily.

"I told you that it wouldn't work Rain." Wraith said shaking his head, but Rain was just as stubborn as always and refused to give up that easily.

"Come on Kan-Kan! You at least know how to fly, so teach me!" Rain said and Kanaletto just stared at her.

"What the hell did you just call me?"

"What? I called you Kan-Kan since saying Kanaletto all the time is a pain. So that's you're new nickname! Kan-Kan!" Rain said happily and Wraith and Altair sweatdroped.

"Uh… no." Kanaletto said flatly. But as usual Rain proceeded to annoy the hell out of him…

**(One hour later)**

"You gotta say yes sooner or later Kan-Kan!" Rain said happily as she watched the fire gods eye twitch in aggravation.

"It would be easier to teach a rock how to fly! And STOP CALLING ME KAN-KAN!!!" Kanaletto roared angrily.

"Come on Kan-Kan!" Rain said but then an idea came to her and she grinned evilly. "Yeah true… you're right." Rain said making Molly, Altair and Wraith who'd been sitting on the floor playing cards for the past hour suddenly stare at Rain, beause she was doing something very… Un-Rain."

"It's not like I can't find someone better to teach me how to fly, since you're not all that good." Rain said, but Kanaletto didn't fall for her reverse psychology… making Rain sigh in aggravation… she had to play her final card.

"Okay Kan-Kan… if you teach me how to fly… I promise I will never call you Kan-Kan again."

"Your training starts at sunset." He said almost instantly.

**(Later at sunset)**

Rain seemed oddly fidgety… whether it was with tension or excitement, or nervousness Wraith wasn't sure… of course he then realized that she had just drank coffee and was completely wired so, that was that.

"Let's get this over with." Kanaletto muttered. "Show me what you can do first." And Rain transformed into her bird like form and began to beat her wings wildly and in an uncoordinated way… only succeeding to fly straight up and then land full force on top of Altair knocking him out… about three feet away… Kanaletto rubbed his forehead feeling a bad headache about to start.

"That… was bad… very, very bad… that actually had to be the most pathetic attempt at flying I've ever seen." Kanaletto said, eye twitching…

"Well excuse me!" Rain growled angrily as she rolled off of poor Altair… whom was then picked up by Kanaletto… and was re-merged back into Kanalettos body… which was probably a good thing… for his own safety that is.

"This is why I need someone to help teach me how to fly! And don't pretend you were an amazing flyer right from the beginning! You were probably just as bad as I am now!" Rain growled and Kanaletto went silent… She was wrong, he'd never been half as she is… he couldn't have been,

If he wanted to live, he couldn't have been… his memories began to play before his eyes… all of those sad memories.

He remembered that day, the day he for the first time ever, spread his wings and flew… there had been no joy, no pleasure, no thrill… just his crumbling will to live, to survive… the memory itself was very sketchy, having just been barely conscious and a mere 8 years old.

_The faint memories of being beaten… beaten like an animal until his bones were nothing more than splinters. The terrible pain that went along with the hours upon hours of agony he'd felt… those long terrible hours he latter discovered had not even been a single hour, but merely a few minutes… but then the memory of being carried… to what would have been his death… and all he could think of was his desperate need to get away, then the memory of being thrown off a cliff…toward the raging waters of the oceans on Oban… he couldn't even really remember what happened next, but he remembered that he triggered something and made his wings appear… and even he couldn't figure out how he managed to do it… how he managed to get away… too just fly toward the open ocean, where no land was in sight… how he flew nonstop from that dawn until sunset, over the sea with no land in sight and with his body broken to bits, he'd never know. It was like his body was on auto pilot… Then at sunset his wings gave out… he fell… he remembered he felt no pain then; he just heard the dull thud as his broken body contacted land, an island to be precise. He remembered he was just a kid, so he didn't know enough to know not to cry…that was one of the few times he could ever remember feeling his curse bearing down upon his body… he remembered asking himself over and over again what he had done wrong, and what was the point to living if he only existed to be hated…But the events that followed…and who it was who helped him, a godling girl no older than 7._

"_You couldn't save her." Those words_ _could pierce deeper than any sword ever could…_ **(But the next words had a little impact as well.)**

"HELLO! THE UNIVERSE CALLING KANALETTO!!! DO YOU READ ME?!" Rain yelled to the dazed Kanaletto, who snapped out of his thoughts and nearly had a heart attack… after a moment he regained himself and growled angrily at her.

"Geeze, I've been yelling at you for almost an hour! Are you ok?" Rain questioned.

"I'm fine… now getting back to the problem at hand. I think I've figured out the best way to teach you." Kanaletto said, his wings forming and flapping for a moment before spreading out to their full size… thinking to use the only method of teaching he knew…

"Okay… how?" Rain questioned… for some reason not liking the sound of this at all.

"It's quite simple really… you better start running, I'll give you a head start of five." Kanaletto said creating a large fireball in his hand… okay she **REALLY **didn't like where this was going…

"Five? Five what?!" Rain yelled nervously.

"…Four…Three…" Kanaletto continued.

"Oh thanks a lot!" Rain roared and took off like a bat out of hell.

"…Two… One…" Kanaletto finished and grinned then was suddenly flying above Rain… throwing fireballs down at her… with deadly accuracy…

"What are you trying to do you psycho?! Stop that! You're supposed to be teaching me how to fly! Not how run for my life!" Rain yelled up at him, he of course ignored her… but then suddenly Rain looked ahead of her… and her heart stopped… she was coming to one big cliff…and the drop alone had to be at least 400 feet! There was no way she could survive that… and Kanaletto seemed to have completely lost it… there was only one way to get outta this alive.

Rain gulped but didn't stop running as fast as her legs would carry her… "Please god for the first time in my life let this work!" Rain whispered to herself and jumped... changing into her bird like form as she fell… and beat her wings as hard as she could… never opening her unseen eyes not wanting to see the rock she was going to go splat on…

Funny this fall seemed to be taking an oddly long time… wait…

"Not bad kid… not bad." Kanalettos somewhat amused voice ran through her ears, and she opened her eyes… her breath caught in her throat…

She was doing it! She was flying! She was actually flying! A joy that Rain couldn't contain burst free inside of her and she sped up… and began performing very elaborate aerial maneuvers… laughing with the sheer feeling of flight! "If this is what Kanaletto feels when he's flying, no wonder he enjoys it so much!" Rain thought to herself… then halted her tricks and flew over to him… he'd been hovering nearby.

"Uh, thanks… but you definitely could have warned me before you started chucking fireballs at me though." Rain said.

"If I had said anything before hand you would probably not tried as hard… though I was still expecting you to splatter on the rocks." He said with a slight hint of entertainment in his voice.

"I'm going to ignore that." Rain said flatly then flew in a quick circle. "Due to the fact that I'm so happy I could kiss you!"

"You try, you die!" Kanaletto said disgusted; and suddenly began to feel very, very, very, tired. And he flew back to the Earth team pit… as he neared it he became transparent illuminated only by his faint red aura… by the time he had landed… he had disappeared. There was only Altair, barely conscious and completely exhausted, he felt like every ounce of his strength was completely drained… he slowly entered the room he shared with Molly, and silently walked over to his favorite spot… and was asleep within moments.

**(The Next Day) **

"Good morning everyone!" Rain said merrily as she came down into the kitchen smiling as brightly as the sun… everyone was there accept Altair. Molly had told everyone that he was completely exhausted and wouldn't wake up, so she had decided to just let him sleep for the time being.

"We're going to be training today Rain… Are you coming?" Wraith said and surprisingly Rain shook her head no… she never had any objections to doing… well anything… unless Don Wei told her to do something then it was nothing but her ignoring him or giving him yet another black eye.

"I'm gonna be out flying today! Thanks to Kanaletto I've finally got it!" Rain said running outside transforming and taking off… making just about everyone's jaw drop… accept Everlight.

"Can I stay here and watch you fly Rain?" Everlight asked shyly… Rain swooped down and patted her on the head giggling.

"I'll do you one better!" Rain chuckled smiling… before anyone could figure out what she meant Everlight was holding on for dear life onto Rains back. As Rain flew as fast as she could.

"Rain be careful!" Wraith said and Molly cast him a little glance… making his human face blush a little, you wouldn't have been able to tell if he was in his true form if he was blushing or not…

**(2 hours later)**

"Wow Rain, that was fun!" Everlight said sipping the milk she had gotten at the bar… which they were in now... of course they weren't exactly sitting at the bar, they were sitting on one of the support rafters near the ceiling… it was very doubtful whether they were actually allowed to sit there.

"I agree that was fun!" Rain said also sipping her milk… but suddenly something caught her eye. The Crog team was directly underneath them… two she recognized as the one who had refused to fight Wraith during that little fiasco, the other was Evraous, the only way Rain could tell was because he was wearing the same outfit now that he had been wearing the night he got his rear kicked by Wraith… the other two Rain didn't know, one wore red armor with large shoulder plates **(cough Toros cough)** and the other had four ears and a scar… sadly the four ears didn't exactly click in her mind right away and she chuckled menacingly.

"Hey Everlight… watch this." Rain snickered and picked up a small stone on the rafter… and chucked it at the Crog with the four ears… Direct hit on the back of his head. Rain restrained her laughter as he looked around, confused to what hit him… of course her near fit of laughter caught in her throat when le looked right up at her and glared right at her… and the worst sound in the world rang through her ears… a sound that made every other sound block out of her conscious mind.

_**CRACK!**_

The rafter she and Everlight had been sitting on suddenly snapped and she fell like a ton of bricks onto the table below…after a moment she regained herself and opened her eyes… only to stare at four very angry Crogs glaring at her menacingly… she then also noticed another very bad situation… Everlights cloak had gotten stuck back on the rafters… she after a second of clinging, slipped out of her cloak and landed without any disguise on…on top of Rain…

And right in front of the other four adult Crogs…At first they were to shocked to say anything… then Everlights eyes went wide.

She looked right at her father… who recognized her immediately, and his eye began to glow with anger…

Directed entirely at Rain.

"Da-" Everlight began but was interrupted as Rain sprang to her feet and grabbed her.

"TIME TO HAUL ASS OUTTA HERE!!!!" Rain yelled at the top of her lungs and raced out of the bar as fast as she could… Only one thought running through her mind.

"We are so dead!!!"


	24. Father!

Chapter 24

Father?!

"Hey guys Rain's back… wait, what is she do-" Koji began… but only succeeded in getting run over, then have the scared-out-of-her-mind Phyl who proceeded to slam the doors to the Earth team pit closed as fast and as hard as she could… getting strange glances from everyone in the room.

"Rain what's wrong? You're acting as though there is a demon chasing you or something." Wraith said watching as Rain looked at him, her eyes indicated that something very bad was going on… and she was holding so tightly to Everlight he was a little afraid that she might accidentally choke her.

"Convenient choice of words!" Rain yelled only for an earsplitting sound that oddly sounded like a giant steel door getting ripped off its hinges… Rain gulped. "Wraith we're busted! AAAAHHH!" Rain yelled just as Kross barged in. It wasn't possible for him to get any angrier. Wraith stood in between him and the Earth team, he didn't exactly know what Rain had done to piss this guy off, but he would never let anything hurt her… or the Earth team.

Kross growled in a rage as this young human dared get in his way. He didn't know how but somehow they had to do with his daughter's kidnapping! By Anavrin he was going to kill them all! With all his strength he swung his fist at the kid. But he dodged smoothly and suddenly pulled on His War Talons. And began to dodge his punches and slice at him… this guy was damn strong! Wraith had fought enemies that he would have managed to completely destroy by now, but this guy wasn't even tired! After dodging another blow that would have probably crushed his skull on contact, Wraith realized that he had only one chance left! Wraith dodged another blow and managed to get behind his enemy and grabbed his arms and slammed his complete weight and strength down onto his back and forced him down… holding his arms so that if he struggled, Wraith could easily break his arms. Of course what happened next made both Wraith and Rain feel like total and complete idiots.

"What right do you have to come in here and try to kill us?!" Wraith roared in anger.

"WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO STEAL MY CHILD?!" Kross roared a whole lot louder… suddenly making Wraith go numb internally. Everlight managed to wiggle free of Rain's vice like grip.

"Daddy!" The second this word left Everlight's mouth… Wraith and Rain said the exact same thing at the exact same time… it really expressed this whole situation perfectly.

"Oopps…"

"Kross?! What in the name of Anavrin are you doing here?" Wraith stated almost falling over in shock.

Kross blinked. "That voice… Wraith?!" he asked disbelieving. Wraith released Kross's arms and got off him. Kross stood up and stared at Wraith who proceded to remove his cloak. In maybe three seconds Everlight was in her fathers arms. Tears of happiness streaming down her face as she hugged her father… but the second Kross saw Rain he became very angry.

"You!" Kross growled and Rain hid behind Wraith… she wasn't a coward, but she knew enough to pick her fights wisely... and a P.O. Crog parent is definately something you definately don't want to screw with.

"Calm down Kross… Rain had nothing to do with Everlight being here." Wraith said and Kross growled a deep menacing growl.

"What the hell is going on here Wraith?! What's Everlight doing here? What are YOU doing here? With humans no less!" Kross snapped and Wraith sighed.

"You and I need to talk." Wraith said and motioned to his room. "Everlight stay out here… your father and I need to have a little chat." Everlight nodded but Kross didn't put her down.

"Daddy its okay, everyone here has been really nice to me… you don't have to worry." Everlight said… for a minute Kross just stared disbelievingly at his daughter. Then slowly he put her down, but cast a warning glance to everyone in the room. Then followed Wraith into his room.

_**(Inside)**_

"Wraith… what is going on here? I'd heard that you'd disappeared but why in the sacred name of Anavrin are you here of all places?" Kross questioned then his expression became angry. "And why is Everlight here?!"

Wraith was silent for a few moments his eyes met Kross's eye... "Kovas says his debt of gratitude to you is paid, that is all I know. Everlight has almost no memory of what happened… and what she has isn't enough information to draw any sort of conclusions."

"Kovas? I saved his son, Reshnor... well I brought him back from the war zone... but he died in Kovas's arms in the infermary, yet Kovas said he was in my debt for letting him see his son one last time. What's he got to do with this?" Kross questioned.

"You tell me. Kovas is dead. His trident crash landed here and he was torn to bits… almost like he came from the middle of a war zone himself! I buried him under a large tree about half a mile from here and Everlight wasn't exactly in the best of conditions herself either… she has been staying here with myself, the Earth team, Rain, and my brother."

"Altair is here as well?" Kross asked surprised. Wraith nodded.

"He is the reason I came here… I heard that he had escaped from his boarding school so I went looking for him. After I found him here in the care of the human racer… I've been staying here as well, with the humans."

"Wraith are you out of your mind?!" Kross yelled. "You should have immediately gone to the Crog pit!" Kross growled… Wraith suddenly started laughing.

"Oh that would have gone well!" Wraith said sarcastically. "Me, the Black Demon the most feared warrior in all the Imperium! The warrior with no consious, no fear, and no soul, suddenly just appearing at the Crog teams door! Yeah that would have been a whole lotta fun!" Then suddenly Wraith looked like all the strength drained out of his body.

"Wraith… are you ok?" Kross asked concerned at Wraiths actions all of a sudden.

"This place…" Wraith said weakly. "Is like a new home to me, and to my brother… the human girl Molly, is as close to me as though she actually was my little sister! And Rain… is the best friend I've ever had in my whole life." Wraith said. And Kross looked at him sympathetically, he had trained Wraith personally, and knew that he in spite of whatever anybody had said about him, had a very gentle soul... scarred by the loss of his family... since he was almost supernaturally strong, fast, and skilled among their kind and kept to himself so much, that many grew to fear him... calling him unstable and other such things.

"Are you and the Phyl girl mates then?" he questioned. Wraith paused... but then Wraith looked back at him, and he looked oddly drained...

"These humans are more family to me now… than my bastard of a father has been in these five long years." he dodged the question... but Kross wasn't going to push his luck Wraith was still very dangerous when aggrivated.

"Wraith, your father tried…but after your mother died he was completely broken up-" Kross started but was interrupted by Wraith totally losing it.

"Oh yeah I really believe that! He didn't write, didn't call, and didn't acknowledge me or my brother FOR FIVE FUCKING YEARS! And as though to add insult to injury he dumps us at two different boarding schools! Oh yeah he was REAL broken up Kross! When your life mate died you kept Everlight! You didn't abandon her! Our father completely abandoned us! So help me if he ever comes near me or my little brother, I'll kill him! Oh, so help me Anavrin I will kill him! "

Kross was silent for a moment. "Wraith… your father and I had two very different ways of handling our grief… do you think that I didn't think about putting Everlight in a boarding school? I did and it seemed like a damn good idea, I didn't think I could raise her on my own…"

"But you didn't send her away, did you?" Wraith growled… then sighed. "This argument is pointless…"

**(Outside) **

Rain sighed in agrivation. "I can't hear anything! Damn these doors for being so thick!"

Rain, Molly, Jordan, Everlight, Stan, and Koji were currently trying to eavesdrop on conversation taking place…"What's going on?" Altair said coming down the stairs… he had obviously just woke up.

"My dad's here." Everlight said as Altair yawned… "Is there one or two of you awake right now?"

"Just me." Altair said. "I think that Kanaletto is still asleep… So your dad's here Everlight… where is he?" Altair questioned looking around.

"That is a question I'd like answered as well." Another voice said making everyone in the room jump, and wheel around to see Toros coming into the room… Just as the door to Wraith's room opened and Kross and Wraith came out…The second Kross saw Toros he froze, then cast a worried glance at Wraith, whose eyes were filling with rage by the second...

"Oh no..." Kross mumbled knowing this was going to end badly.

And for an equaly startled moment Toros, stared right back… trying to determine whether he was actually seeing this right or not... then suddenly Wraith's ears jagged and he assumed a fighting stance. Eyes glowing with nothing short of extreme and unfathomable rage.

"What the hell are you doing here…Father..."


	25. Hellraiser

**UM, I AM SORRY, BUT KROSS AND TOROS ARE NOT BROTHERS… THEY ARE JUST CHILDHOOD FRIENDS… WELL ANYWAYS MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!**

Chapter 25

Hellraiser

"W-Wraith? Is that you?" Toros said numbly… was there any possible way? Was this really his son?

"So you actually remember me eh?" Wraith spat, there was such an incredible hatred in his voice that it sounded like his words were laced with a deadly venom. Altair's eyes grew wide and he stared at Toros…

"D-Dad?" Altair whispered. Altair had always said that he didn't remember much about his father… so how could he know enough to be angry at him, let alone hate him? Toros looked at him for a moment then his eyes went wide.

"Altair?" Toros questioned and made the slightest movement towards Altair… then found himself flying across the room, searing pain in his shoulder from a lethal claw wound. Wraith stood in front of his brother, his right talon dripping crimson blood. Never had anyone ever seen Wraith explode like this.

"Don't you dare come anywhere my brother!" Wraith hissed. Toros stood up looking at Wraith with a deep sadness hidden in his eyes.

"Wraith, please calm down-" Toros began only to wind up at the receiving end of Wraiths War Talons yet again… five deep wounds inflicted on his chest… Wraiths War Talons had cut clean through his armor as though it was paper.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! How dare you tell me to calm down! You lousy piece of slime! First you abandon us for five years, and now you suddenly just show up out of nowhere! If there are any brains in your head at all you'll get out… or so help me great Anavrin, I will kill you!" Wraith threatened, he was now officially scaring everyone.

"Wraith please…please just hear me out, there was a reason I couldn't get in contact with you or your brother…"

"No more lies!" Wraith snapped clenching his fists. It was truly terrifying seeing Wraith acting like this. Everlight hid behind her father, Rain looked at Wraith with silent sympathy, she couldn't even fathom how angry he must be… And Altair was just trying to look away, not wanting to see this. And Molly felt deep inside her insides going numb, a terrible sick feeling welling inside her entire being…

_But she had a very bad feeling that it had nothing to do with what was taking place…_

There was no real way to describe what she was feeling. It was like she was feeling that something else was here, watching this whole situation taking place… a dark and sinister presence, that was actually ENJOYING this… whatever it was, Molly had a feeling that they were about to find out…

"Wraith… what I did, I… I did it to protect you… I had to keep the two of you safe, even if it meant I had to separate you… and cut my ties with you entirely, it was the only way I could save you!" Toros yelled closing his eyes… his entire being shaking from the inside out.

"Save us?! Save us from what?!" Wraith growled…

"He tried to save you from me." A deep cold voice slurred into the room. Practically making everyone's blood freeze in their veins. "Up here." The voice said again drawing everyones attention up to the catwalk above them.

… There was Kairogon… The devil eared Emperor of the Crog Imperium…

"H-H-How did you get here?!" Toros stuttered feeling fear like never before welling inside his body…

"I am all powerful… I can do whatever I want, as well as go wherever I want." Kairogon sneered waving his scepter around... Altair for a moment just stared. This wasn't happening! This wasn't happening! This wasn't happening! His fear was so great that he didn't even realize that Kanaletto had been awake for a while… watching everything that was taking place, but the second he saw that scepter... he burst from Altair's body… and his eyes… they were reflecting nothing but the purest and deepest fear imaginable. For he had a very bad feeling he'd seen that scepter before.

At Kanaletto's… eh… very noticeable entrance, Kairogon blinked his large gold eyes then chuckled a wicked chuckle. "So… you are the ancient Fire god of lore eh? Heh, you match your description perfectly… accept for the shackles that is." Kairogon chuckled then looked at his scepter… "So, this is the creature I've heard so much about? He looks to be in almost as sorry shape as you my dear friend." Kairogon cooed… **(He is talking to his scepter… he is defiantly off his rocker.)** But then Kairogon's eyes shifted onto Everlight.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Kairogon chuckled and he watched as Kross moved his cape in front of Everlight as though to conceal her from Kairogons view.

"I wondered what happened to you… I could have feasted well on your energy, there was just something about eating a Caster child's soul that had me salivating. It is a shame that fool Kovas saved you from me… I had to consume four of my best servants' souls in order to sate my appetite after that… oh well, their eternal suffering is on your head I guess."

There was a long pause for that to really sink in, suddenly Everlight grabbed her head in pain. Terrible memories began resurfacing, she now clearly remembered that it had been Kairogon who had come to her home and taken her, how he had her locked in a cage for months… waiting for her to be too weak to struggle so he could steal her soul… how Kovas saved her… it had all come back now.

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO STOLE MY DAUGHTER?!" Kross roared in anger but Kairogon merely chuckled.

"One would think you'd be mad not only for your child. But for your mate as well." Kairogon said simply, getting a confused look from Kross.

"My mate had a disease-" Kross began but Kairogon began laughing.

"Oh, she did I gave it to her! I should know! You see I despise anything with such a pure soul… so she had to go."

"You can't just give someone a disease!" Kross shot back. Not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

"I can't… but he can!" Kairogon said bringing his scepter into view… Its black diamond eyes seemed to blaze almost like it was alive with entertainment… or bloodlust…

Kairogon then glanced down at Wraith and Toros. "So you are Black Demon Wraith then? Bah! Your soul is far to pure for title, my dear nephew."

"Nephew?" Wraith questioned then it clicked and he looked at Toros horrified. "That means… you're… YOU'RE-"

"The second heir to the throne." Toros muttered sadly… "Yes… Kairogon is my older brother… And he is your uncle."

"Pity your fool of a father." Kairogon sneered. "I was the one who was destined to rule!" Toros suddenly clenched his fist at that but Kairogon paid no heed.

"He's a murderer!" Altair roared. "I remember! I remember you! You! YOU!" Altair roared then went dead silent… tears streaming down his face. Then he looked at Kairogon his eyes burning with anger.

"He killed our mother!"

There was a very long silence. Both Wraith and Toros... trying to grasp what Altair just said. Toros then turned to face his brother , his eyes blazing.

"DID YOU KILL MY MATE?! DID YOU KILL HINATA?! ANSWER ME YOU BASTARD! ANSWER ME!" Toros roared… Kairogon was silent, then threw his head back in a wave of cruel laughter.

"Such bold words from my baby brother! HAHAHAHA! Yes! Yes! I was the one who killed your precious mate! She was a fool! She refused to tell me where the Jewel of Heaven was! So I killed her, simple as that." Suddenly Kairogon brought his scepters head very close to his ear… and he began to nod, almost as though it was speaking to him!

"Someone, wants to have a nice little chat with you Kanaletto." Kairogon sneered and held his scepter out in front of him. Molly let out a scream when it began to move on its own.

The demonic bird like head suddenly began to move with sickening cracking sounds, like someone cracking their neck. Then it suddenly swallowed the ruby that was in its mouth! The scepters head began to grow bigger and bigger until it's head was actually bigger than Kanalettos! The scepters body also seemed to get much longer as well, and sprouted what looked like rough jagged edges on its sides… almost like… then it hit everyone.

Vertebrae's…

Whatever the hell this thing was, it was literally nothing more than a head and a spine! It had to be one of the most sickening things Molly had ever seen in her life. Suddenly its eyes snapped open… it's eyes were like black diamonds that came straight out of hell, it's head looked strikingly similar to Kanalettos with the only exceptions being that its teeth were bigger, and its face was darker, colored as black as Kairogons heart.

It suddenly smiled, baring its huge razor like teeth.

"Hello, Kanaletto… its been a long time." The… thing spoke. Its voice was dark and cruel and sounded very amused.

Kanaletto looked like he was gonna be sick. "G-G-Gor-"

"That's right I am Goros!" The scepter finished with a sinister sneer. Kanaletto grabbed his head and began shaking violently.

"No! No! No! We killed you! We sent you howling back to hell where you belong!"

"Wrong." Goros said smiling at Kanaletto's very appearent fear. "I have a personal interest in you…hehehehe well you know why, it courses through your very veins, my own little personal mark. "

Kanaletto growled in rage. "I was the one... who put you in the sorry state you're in now!"

Goros growled and bared his teeth. "Don't think I've forgotten about that you insolent fool." suddenly his expression grew very smug.

"But... you may have managed to cut my spine and head off of my body, but you didn't finish the job while you could! So now I'm back!" he said then suddenly looked at what was left of him. "A little worse for the ware... but that will be corrected in time. In 18 days the Eshariol Comet will be directly over Kairogon's castle... you know what happens next don't you?" Goros chuckled and Kanaletto paled...

"But we've already wasted enough time Kairogon... but let's leave these fools with a nice little curse." Goros sneered and seemed to revert back to being a scepter... Kairogon chuckled and suddenly something burst from his back...

The Wings of Darkness...

They were every bit as hideous as Molly had pictured them to be... they looked like they were outlined with faint traces of red blood... and reflected in those wings were thousands upon thousands of what looked like small tounges of flames... but there was a far worse reality to what they really where.

They were the souls of the thousands of creatures that had been consumed by both Kairogon and Goros... sentenced to an eternity of pain and suffering, and being forced to watch as more and more innocent creatures were forced to suffer the same fate.

In a flash, the roof was torn off of the Earth pit and Kairogon flew straight up into the dark sky... grasping his scepter in both hands... he created a ball of dark energy large enough to be a small planet! And with all his strength hurled it down unto the unsuspecting planet below... then disapeared... back to the Crog planet.

"W-What the hell?" Altair stuttered watching as the dark energy blast was getting closer by the minute. "Kanaletto can't you stop that thing?!"

"My powers have severly weakend from being locked up for 300,000 years... I... I can't stop it!"

"You don't have too..." Toros said his eyes blazing with an unimaginable rage... "Hinata... my denying my birthright cost you your life... but now I will finally set things right..." he whispered and looked at the sky. In a sudden burst of blinding light... something had appeared on Toros's back...

Molly gasped... from what Wraith had told her... there was no mistaking the details.

Toros had the Wings of Light, he was the rightful ruler of his race.


	26. Haven and its Inhabitants

**I MADE THIS CHAPTER EXTRA LONG ENJOY! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!**

Chapter 26

_Haven_ and its Inhabitants

"T-The Gaurdian Wings?! Toros, you're... You're the-" Kross stuttered, not even truly believing what he was seeing. Toros didn't acknowledge him, he just continued to stare emotionlessly up at the rapidly approaching blast of dark energy... This wasn't going to be easy at all. In a flash he flew straight up to meet the blast halfway, the Gaurdaian Wings immeadiatly encirled his body and became a radiant sheild forged out of the pure shining energy that was the Wings of Light. The shield and the blast colided into each other and created and a massive shockwave that sent everyone who was below, **(or within a 100 mile radius for that matter) **flying by the sheer force of its impact! Molly was completely blown off her feet and slammed against a nearby wall with such force that she was knocked out cold... the last thing she remembered seeing was the blast of dark energy exploding, engulfing everything around her, then her world went black.

**(God only knows how long she was out...) **

Molly came to with a groan. Her entire body was killing her, wait what had just happened? She slowly opened her eyes...

and quickly wished she hadn't...

Everything was in ruins, there was nothing left of the Earth Pit... there wasn't anything left period everywhere she looked there was more wreckage, she looked at the sky... it was dark and ominous, filled with clouds making it look like that at any minute it was gonna start pouring, and to add to that a terrible mist hung in the air making it cold and oderless and also giving the land an awful greyish hue that made it look like it was dead. And what's worse, she couldn't see anybody... nobody.

"Is there anybody out there?!" Molly called out, hearing the echo reverberate weakly throughout the air. "Hello?!" she called again only this time the sound of shifting rubble caught her attention and about ten feet in front of her Kross emereged from the wreckage, coughing and brushing dirt and gravel off, Everlight appeared as well, she also seemed to be alright if not just shook up.

"Molly!" Everlight yelled and ran over and latched onto Molly in a tight bear hug... about two seconds later the rubble directly beneath Mollys feet shifted causing her to lose balance and fall over just as Rain popped out... and boy, she was ready to fight.

"Alright who wants a piece of me!? I'm not going down without a fight! And I'm not losing to some power hungry- off his rocker- low life- nut job- idiot with a freaking talking scepter that's also another serious headcase! Come on who wants a piece of me?! I'm ready for ya'! So come get me ya' overgrown pansys!" Rain roared to no one imparticular and started to randomly punch the air.

"Whoa! Rain! Stop!" Molly yelled just barely dodging one of Rains punches. Rain stopped but sadly Kross walked behind her and suceeded in getting nailed in the gut by Rain... and was completely winded. Rain stopped then and looked at Molly and Everlight her expression was both scared and worried.

"What happened here? Where's Wraith? Did he make it? Is he ok?" Rain said so fast it was barely audiable... but before Molly could respond to the worried halfbreed; Toros appeared... his armor was a bit of a wreck and his left arm was bleeding profoundly... he was quite appearently very tired as well. Just barely managing to stand.

"W-Where are my sons?" he said weakly leaning against some of the larger pieces of rubble and trying to catch his breath.

"Toros... Why the hell didn't you ever tell me that you had royal blood in your veins, let alone the fact that you're the true heir to the throne?!" Kross growled angrily... Toros just glanced at him weakly.

"Never once in my life did I want to be Emperor." he muttered then quite appearently lost consiousness. Kross growled in agrivation...

"Let him rest for know... We'll deal with that matter later." Kross muttered rubbing his forehead... then sudden an earsplittining sound rang through everyone's ears.

"What in the name of Anavrin was that?" Kross asked as the same sickening sound pierced everyone's eardrums again. Rain who hadn't been paying attention for the last few minutes looked at Kross puzzled.

"Eh? When did you get here?" She asked and Kross's eye glowed eerily as he glared daggers at her. The sound occured yet again, only this time there was the sound of someone coughing like crazy mixed in as well as the familiar sound of Altair's voice yelling at something or someone... after a moment the group found the source of that earsplitting noise. There was Altair, sitting cross-legged on a large piece of rock with an amused yet freaked out look written on his face... and there was Kanaletto leaning against a nearby rock; clutching at his throat and stomach.

"Altair! Thank Anavrin you're ok!" Everlight yelled suddenly catching a stunned Altair in one of her hugs. **(She may be little, but she is very, very strong... takes after her Dad)** But everyone had to just stare for a moment at Kanaletto. He was quite clearly in a great deal of pain, and also couldn't seem to breathe or swallow since he was coughing and hacking so much.

"Uh... what's wrong with him?" Rain questioned as she watched the giant fire god start clawing at his throat, and Altair sweatdroped.

"It's kinda funny really... you see he got alot bigger to defend himself... but he must've opened his mouth somewhere along those lines, when everything started getting blown away that is and... well... um... how should I put this?" Altair muttered... just as a very muffeled scream drew everyone's attention to Kanaletto, he'd stopped coughing for a minute just enough for everyone to hear exactly what was bothering him so much.

"Help!!! Somebody! Anybody! Please HELP ME!" A muffeled voice that sounded extremely desprate... and familiar... wait...

"Jordan?!" Molly yelled in surprise. "Jordan! Can you hear me?!" Molly yelled at the top of her lungs.

"M-Molly! Help! He ate me! He ate me! Help! It's horrible in here! Get me outta here!" Jordan yelled from within the belly of the beast... **(Bad pun, sorry!)**

**"**Don't worry Jordan! We'll get you out!" Molly said yet turned and looked at everybody around her... hoping for somone to have some sort of idea... no go...

"You better get me out soon Molly! I'm holding on for dear life in this idiots throat! And I'm looking down and... I CAN SEE HIS STOMACH! YUCK!"

"Shut up you little brat, or I will shake so hard that you really do fall into my guts!" Kanaletto choked out. Molly began frantically trying to think of some sort of solution to this problem... But Rain suddenly smiled broadly, an idea was clearly forming in her head... Kross didn't like this at all and picked up Everlight and backed away.

"Clear the runway!" Rain said happily backing up oh, about... 300 feet. Molly also not liking this backed away also... Altair, who was out of the way already chuckled, this was gonna be good! Rain then changed into her flight form and flew full speed towards Kanaletto... and headbutted him clean in the gut... causing him to spit up Jordan, and finally enable him to beathe again. Jordan sat up, he was completely covered in slime... and was quite clearly embarresed way beyond belief, as well as very freaked out.

"Well... that's... quite disgusting." Kross noted completely and totally disgusted and Jordan glared angrily at him.

"The universe's most powerful himelich manuver! Courtesy of Rain Shadowflare!" Rain said happily and Molly blinked in surprise.

"Your last name is Shadowflare?" Molly questioned and Rain nodded... now, there was a long unnerving silence, there was a great deal of unease in the group. Everything that just happened with Kairogon and Goros, Toros having the Wings of Light, the dark energy blast, everyone being scattered or worse... Now Molly looked at this small group; the only real sorce of light or color was the glow that came from the Crogs eyes and Kanaltto's red aura.

Molly looked at the surrounding landscape, it was barren, grey, and lifeless. "So... what do we do know? Search for any more survivors?" she asked and Kanaletto shook his head no.

"I've seen this before... This entire planet is now trapped by Goros's curse." He muttered and suddenly picked something out of the rubble. At first it looked like some sort of statue... then it hit Molly like a million ton sledge hammer in her chest.

It was Don Wei... her father... turned to stone.

"Is... is he alive?" Molly asked ineternally numb... Kanaletto set the petrified Don Wei down.

"He's alive... but he; as is everyone on this planet... is now under a very, very, powerful curse. Your friend's actions seem to have spared a few this terrible fate. But the rest will be forevermore entombed in this state." Kanaletto muttered surveying the cursed landscape.

"Wait if you're a frickin' god, can't you lift this curse or something?" Jordan growled.

"I can't. This curse can't be lifted until Goros is dead... for good." Kanaletto said irritably...

"Hey, anybody else alive out here?!" Wraiths voice said and he came into view... and he wasn't alone. Rush, Para-Dice, Rick, Stan, **(Who was carrying a unconsious Koji on his back), **and of course Aikka.

"What the hell's going on here?!" Wraith growled angrily.

"The entire planet's been cursed Wraith..." Kross said and Wraith rolled his eyes in aggrivation.

"This day just keeps getting better and better." Wraith growled and his eyes narrowed at the sight of his unconsious father.

"How come we weren't turned to stone like everyone else was meow?" Para-Dice questioned looking around at the desolate wastelad that was once Alwas... and also poking the Don Wei statue.

"I guess when the dark blast and the Wings of Light slamed into each other... it weaked part of the blast and probibly spared a few creature's here and there." Molly said crossing her arms and sighing.

"Now what exactly happened here to start with Molly? Both my instructor and G'dar seemed to have been turned to stone... along with countless others as well." Aikka asked... but the second that Everlight saw him she quickly hid behind her father who also didn't seem to thrilled that Aikka had managed to escape petrification...

"It's a long story..." Molly muttered sadly.

"We have enough time to hear it." Rush said calmly.

**(About an hour later) **

"That's about it..." Molly said finishing filling everybody who didn't know; in about Kairogon and Goros, and how they were responsible for everything that had taken place here and on many other worlds as well. Toros had regained his consiousness a ways back although he hadn't really said anything... the last thing he wanted was to accidently make Wraith lose it.

"Goros, The Great Calamity that rose up out of hell... and the causer of The Cataclysm of ancient lore... never in my life did I ever think that he would be the cause for so much suffering in this day." Rush muttered stroking his beard in thought...

"Meow Meow... So what do we do now meow? If we're gonna stop this Goros creep we can't exactly do it from here meow." Para-Dice said wgging her tail back and forth and looking at the wasteland they were currently in.

"Yes... that is a problem." Wraith muttered closing his eyes for a moment then opened them as a plan started forming in his mind.

"What about _Haven_?" Wraith asked... There was a moment of silence, and confusion to what Wraith meant.

"Hey... that's a pretty good idea." Toros muttered and Kross nodded in agreement.

"Glad you think so... Your Majesty." Wraith added as sarcasticly as he could... Toros winced as though Wraith had just smacked him.

"What's_ Haven_?" Molly questioned.

"How to describe it..."Wraith mumbled."It's kinda like a giant space ship... nobody really knows where it came from, how it was built, or even who built it. It just appeared out of nowhere. There are high tech space stations throughout the entire universe that aren't half as advanced as it is... It's not even like a real space ship in a sense. It's more like an entire island that travels through space rather than anything else." Wraith said lookingout at the group. "Some of our military units are positioned there... as well as many others who just live there... Nice place really."

"And a good place to plan what exactly it is we're going to do about both Goros and Kairogon." Kross noted.

"Yeah, but one problem... How would we get there exactly? The Arrow isn't capable of flying through space... and right now, I doubt it's even in one piece anymore." Stan said and that was appearently something the others hadn't thought of.

"He's right, and my Trident's scrap." Wraith muttered... but Altair suddenly sprang up.

"Kanaletto, could you power one of the Avatars ships?" Altair said and Kanaletto was silent for a moment then glanced at Altair.

"Anything the Avatar can do, I can do better... I'll power the ship." Kanaletto muttered creating a fireball in his hand. Then suddenly Wraiths ears twitched and stood straight up. **(That's gotta be quite a sight since if he stretches his ears out to their full extent they're well over six feet long!) **

**"**Something's coming... and it's pretty damn big at that." Wraith growled, ears returning to their normal scythe like appearence; and everyone went quiet for a few moments... then they heard it. It sounded almost like a bird... but Rain acted before anyone else by picking up a piece of rubble and chucking it as hard as she could in the direction that the sound was coming from...

And with a heavy THUD Spirit, the ambassador of the Phyls fell out of the sky and landed in front of everyone unconsious... a very large bump on his head...everyone sweatdroped.

"Um... whoops?" Rain said nervously.

"Uh, Rain I think that you just K.O'd one of your own kind... or half of your own kind at least." Jordan muttered poking Spirit with a stick as he changed out of his flight form and back to his normal form.

"Poor Spirit, getting nailed by Rain... that's gotta hurt." Altair muttered... Rain suddenly seemed to freeze up... in some serious shock.

"Um... did you say Spirit? As in Spirit the Phyls ambassador? As in their racing champion?" Rain asked nervously, and Altair looked at her curiously.

"Yeah that's him... why?"

"Oh... crap." Rain said... she was so screwed.

"What's wrong with you?" Kross asked noting the look of horror on Rain's face... and wondering if he could perhaps use it against her in the future. But Rain was still silent... almost as though someone pulled the plug on her vocal cords... Wraith was official worried now.

"Rain... are you ok?" Wraith asked and Rain looked at him nervously and scratched the back of her head...

"Uh, Wraith... meet my Dad." Rain said sheepishly... there was a VERY long pause, everybody just didn't really know what to say, or how to say it... But leave it to Altair to say what everyone else was thinking and trying to put into politer words.

"Rain you are so dead..." Altair chuckled and Rain numbly nodded yes.

"Uh... we'll lie about what happened when he wakes up. He doesn't need to know I clocked him." Rain said rubbing the back of her head. "So uh, when do we head to this_ Haven_?"

"We leave now..." Kross said irritably.

"I agree." Wraith said nodding.

"Meow! Whatever you say O' supreme master of DDR! Meow!" Para-Dice chuckled. Kross and Toros looked at Wraith for some sort of explination.

"Don't ask... Please... just don't ask." Wraith said sweatdroping.

**(A while later)**

"Mental note." Altair muttered. "When a lightning and etherial god powers a ship. Do not under any circumstance let a god of fire and shadows try his hand at powering the same ship, because it just does not work the same way." And it was true, Kanaletto may have been able to power the ship... but the actual ride was anything but smoothe. But in spite of the... er... turbulence... Wraith managed to pilot the ship in the general direction they needed to go, and was now currently working with one of the radios on board the ship.

"Uh... I can't take much more of this!" Rick groaned holding onto the wall as the ship lurched hard to its side again. Sending poor Para-Dice flying and then crash into Rush... and bounced off.

"Likewise." Aikka agreed also starting to feel queasy as well. "Have you ever been to this _Haven_ before Wraith?"

"Yes... a few times." Wraith nodded as he continued to work with one of the ships radios. "It's pretty nice there, but I haven't been there in a few years..." but suddenly the radio hummed to life... from Haven's main command bridge.

_"This is the Intergalactic Vessel Haven. **(Yawn)** You've reached the main control bridge..." _A voice said, butsounded as though whoever it was, was an inch away from falling asleep.

"Yes, this is... wait... Silva?!" Wraith practically screamed into the intercom.

_"Hey I recognize that voice! Wraith! So how's it hanging?" _The voice clearly identified to be named Silva said happily. Wraith sighed in agrivation.

"Silva what in the name of Anavrin are **you** doing in _Haven's_ control room?!" Wraith growled in frustration.

_"I live on board Haven now Wraith, it'_s _my home! And the guy who usually works the intercom is on his lunch break, so he asked me to fill in for him 'till he gets back." _Silva chuckled.

"When will he be back Silva?" Wraith said rubbing his forehead, feeling a bit of a headache coming on... there was silence on the other line. Then the sound of conversation was heard in the backround.

_"Who's on the line?" _a new voice asked.

_"First things first, where is my sandwich?" _Silva asked.

_"Yeah right, here... you are even weirder than I originally thought Silva."_ the new voice said disgusted.

"_What? There is nothing even remotely weird about a nice hot liver and fish, hot pepper, cheese, tomato sandwich smothered in mustard! It's delicious!"_ Silva chuckled... everyone who heard that started gaging.

_"That is so nasty." the unknown voice said... "So who's on the line for the second time?"_

_"_My name is Wraith... could someone please tell me how far away _Haven_ is from my current position?" Wraith asked, a little tired of listening to this.

"Hold on... yes, we have you on scanner and... you should be within sight radius in about eight minutes."

**(8 Minutes later)**

"Holy shit..." Rick stammered looking out the ships window at the giant ship that was _Haven._

_Haven_ was just that, huge. Actually huge couldn't quite sum it up. The ship actually looked like it was built on a giant asteroid! And on top of that, there was a huge dome... and under that dome was an actual island! It really took everyones breath away... accept Kanaletto's... even though he was currently floating in a large glowing red sphere of energy in the center of the ship, powering it. The sight of _Haven _was not beautiful, or awe inspireing... the sheer sight of it, made a hole inside his heart burn.

"The place, that I once called home... I guess it never really was my home." Kanaletto murmered. "But still, I need to regain as much of my strength as possible so that I can kill Goros."

The radio hummed to life yet again. "_We're now opening the docking bay. Proceed to land your vessel inside." _The voice said and Wraith watched as a hatchopened on the side of _Haven_'s exterior... but he had one bad feeling that the landing was gonna be anything but smooth... and sadly he was so very, very right. Kanaletto's landing... sucked to say the least... The ship barreled into the docking bay and crashed onto the ground... or to be more precise, it crashed on top of about three other different ships

"Kanaletto..." Jordan growled angrily, currently buried beneath Everlight, Para-Dice, and Rick. "I really hate you."

"Oh, bite me." Kanaletto growled back, and willed the ships door to open; **(Just noting that Koji regained consiousness somewhere along the lines, but Spirit is still unconsious and is currently slung over Rush's shoulder.) **of course once everyone was out of the ship it mysteriously turned to dust...

"Uh, I don't think that was supposed to happen." Everlight noted and Kanaletto just rubbed the back of his head, wondering how the hell that happened.

"There ain't no way we're cleaning this up..." an irritated voice growled from behind the group. Molly turned around and blinked... then blinked again to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Standing there was a Naurasian boy, a little older and taller than Aikka though with some very noticably different traits. First off he was clearly a goth and he also wore no crown and his medium red hair was slightly spikey in front and was in a very long pony tail in the back, his ears where a lot bigger than Aikka's as they went to about his shoulder length and in his left ear there were three onyx black earrings, he wore a black choker with spikes, he was also very thin like Aikka, he had a pair of stunning emerald green eyes, he wore a completely black tee shirt, black sweatpants, black boots, and black fingerless gloves, and a black spiked bracelet... and he also had a fairly long dagger on his belt.

"Oh great! And we just finished cleaning this place!" Another voice said and its owner was quickly revealed as its owner walked next to the goth Naurasian... This voice belonged to a Crog. He wasn't quite as tall as Toros or Kross but had the same build, very muscular. He was about Wraiths height maybe an inch or two bigger, he had on a greyish colored armor on with dark blue around the sides and dark blue shoulder plates, but the armor was loosely built and was more suited for comfort than for battle, he had grey gloves on, and he looked pretty tired... and he was carrying a mop.

The goth Naurasian sighed; then glanced at the group before him... his eyes widened at the sight of Wraith and he smiled... he did have slightly sharper than usual canines, but not enough to be disturbing.

"Hey Wraith, long time no see!" The goth Naurasian said, Wraith blinked in momentary surprise. "Senel?" and then he glanced at the Crog. "Zane?"

"Yep!" Senel chuckled. "You know Silva is here now too right?"

"I know, we had a little... chat over the intercom. You guys staying out of trouble?" Wraith asked... he wondered why he bothered. Zane and Senel looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Come on Wraith, you know us better than that!" Zane said happily twirling his mop in his hand...**(Nobody really acknowledged what happened when the mop flew out of his hands and a rather painful impaling noise as well as a high pitched scream was heard...) **"Can we help it if we posses the dark gifts of pranking?"

"Yes, it is both a blessing and a curse." Altair agreed and Senel and Zane glanced at Altair surprised.

"Hey, Altair! It's been a long time!" Senel said happily. "The last time we saw you, you were only four years old!"

"A four year old who had already mastered the art of a well placed fire cracker... you are definately destined for greatness." Zane chuckled and Toros ears drooped.

"I don't think that the Prime Minister of Naurasia ever forgot that one..." Toros mumbeled to Aikka who nodded.

"That would certainly explain why he refuses to sit down at any meetings." Aikka whispered back.

Senel's expression alll of a sudden became very grim and he glanced at Wraith. "I think it's only fair to warn you... you've got a big problem living on this ship... Its name starts with a Re- and ends with a -gore."

"Oh no, not him." Wraith muttered rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah, life was good here until Regore and his thugs took up residence here... they've been making our lives miserable." Zane agreed... and then he and Senel glanced at each other and their expressions changed to that of a pair of serious and proffessional mischief makers.

"Oh well," Senel chuckled "When we think of something; revenge will be oh so sweet." And they both chuckled evily...

Kanaletto rolled his eyes in agrivation. "I don't have time to deal with anymore idiots right now..." Kanaletto growled and glanced at Altair... who didn't like where this was going. Within a matter of moments Altair was in Kanalettos vice like grip... There was a flash of red light, and Altair's body merged into Kanaletto.

Keyword there is that his "body" merged into Kanaletto... Kanaletto then seemed to place something back on the ground. At first it seemed to resemble silver smoke... but that theory died the second that it screamed.

"ACK!!! I'm silver! And glowy! And transparent! That means... I'm... I'm DEAD!" Altair who was litterally just what he said, transparent, and glowing silver... he was also floating about two inches off the ground.

"No, your not dead... I just seperated your body from your soul. Since I am bound to you, normally you have to merge into for me to be able to move freely. But I have something I need to take care of... alone... so I absorbed your body without your soul so you can't burden me with your annoying pressence, and I'm free enough to whatever I wish... but I cannot leave this ship, without your soul." And with that, his wings reformed and he seemed to just disappear... Wraith looked back at Senel and Zane to see the two of them staring blankly at the ghostly form of Altair...

"WTF?" They said at the same time.

"Um... I'll explain later, right now we need to-" Wraith began but was interupted.

"You need to what?" A dark and cold voice slurred causing Senel and Zane to jump back a little bit in shock... then growl in anger. Before them stood a group of about eight Crogs... but Molly had a very, very bad feeling about their pressence... They each had the same dark green armor with heavy shoulder plates; accept for the largest of them, his armor was deep blood red and his shoulder plates were actually made out of the skulls of two large animals... and he wore a long black cape... and his eyes were cold and cruel.

"Well, well, well, Black Demon Wraith... It's been a long time." The Crog with the red armor growled his voice like a snakes...

"Hello Regore... It would appear you haven't changed much." Wraith growled back.

"Yeah, he is still the same lousy creep he always was." Senel growled.

"If at anything he's an even bigger jerk than he was before." Zane agreed.

"You two freaks better shut up! Unless you both have death wishes that is..." Regore hissed, and then his eyes fell on the group behind Wraith. **(More like his eyes fell on the humans)**

"So, you brought human prisioners eh?" Regore chuckled. Eyeing Molly, making her shift uncomfortably.

"They're not prisioners Regore, they're with me." Wraith growled stepping in front of Molly blocking her from Regore's view... Regore was momentarily stunned, then he got very, very mad.

"You stupid bastard! Are you mad!? You're associating with humans! And you dare to call yourself a Crog?!" Regore roared angrily. Suddenly there was a loud CLANG! Followed by an equally loud YEOW! Regore rolled his eyes and growled as another Crog appeared. He was built more like Wraith, accept that he was a just little more muscular than Wraith, but not up to the point he looked like Toros or Kross, he wore grey and white armor with large shoulder plates, a white cape, and grey gloves, and his armor like Zane was also better suited for comfort than battle, his ears were like Toros's though they were three times bigger, and his eyes were closed...

"Speaking of a disgrace to the Crogs." Regore growled crossing his arms and glaring at the Crog that had just appeared... the group of Crogs that had entered with Regore also seemed slightly unnerved by this other Crogs pressence. Almost as though they were afraid of him...

"Hello Silva!" Senel chuckled... appearently very pleased by his pressence and the others discomfort.

"I really don't like trying to find my way around here, I keep getting lost." Silva growled and rubbed his head.

"Maybe if you opened your eyes?" Jordan muttered sarcasticly, but Altair went to hit him... but his hand just passed through his head.

"You idiot!" Altair growled. "Silva is-" Altair was interupted by Silva opening his eyes... his eyes were silvery white.

Silva was blind...

"It's no big deal Altair... freaky, your voice doesn't seem to have an origin... where are you standing?" Silva said looking around. **(To everyone who has seen Avatar the Last Air Bender he see's like Toph, and he can very faintly see aura's... unlike Toph)**

"Get outta here, you blind freak!" Regore growled... Then a real growling was heard throughtout the entire docking bay. Behind Silva was what looked a huge wolf. But upon closer inspection, this creature wasn't a wolf... but a fox... a very, very, very, big fox, it was completely white, accept for around its shoulders and sides where there were streaks of red, its eyes were also a deep red color, and it had large teeth, and very big ears, but those were not its most unusual trait though...

This fox like creature... had nine tails. **(Not from pokemon) **

Silva whistled innocently. "Aside from coming here to speak with my old buddy Wraith; I have a little message for you Regore. The message is... If you and your friends hunt on my land again... I will slaughter you." But within a split second Regore had Silva pushed against the wall... pressing a dagger against his throat.

"You piece of blind shit, you dare to threaten me?!" Regore snapped... but then found himself pinned on the ground, staring up the monster fox, its huge fangs bared as it growled at him.

"I wasn't speaking for myself Regore... I pass this warning to you from Nimari, the beast goddess. You've been hunting on her land; she told me to tell you that if you hunt on her land again and she'll kill you." Silva warned, and motioned for the fox creature to get off Regore... it did and walked over to Silva who petted its head affectionately.

Regore stood up, his eyes blazing in anger. "Do you think I care about her pathetic threats?! Bah! But I've had more than my fill of you, you piece of blind shit!" Regore roared... but Zane, Senel, and Wraith stood in the way between him and Silva.

"If anyone here is a disgrace to our kind it is you Regore! Get the hell out!" Wraith snapped eyes blazing.

"So the demon boy wants to play, fine! We'll play with you!" Regore growled and his gang suddenly unsheathed their daggers...Toros was now officially fed up.

"Enough of this, break it up!" Toros yelled and siezed Regore by his shoulder. Regore looked at Toros surprised... then made a motion with his hand and his group sheathed their weapons.

"Yes sir." Regore said, his voice dripping with false sincerity... but still, Toros was a superior warrior compared to him. He didn't want to press his luck. And Toros released his grip on his shoulder...

"Tell Captain Jezta, that Colonol Toros, and General Kross need to speak with him immeadiatly and that it's a matter of the utmost importance." Kross said and Regore glanced at him... then nodded.

"Yes sir." Again the same false sincerity but then he turned to face his gang. "After we pass on the message, lets go hunting." Regore chuckled and they walked out...

Toros sighed, this day was not going well... he was even more convinced of that when he found himsel flying backwards and landing full force on the ground, having been punched in the face by Wraith.

"What, in the name of Anavrin did you do?" Wraith snapped eyes blazing in rage.

"I-I thought I was helping." Toros choked... sadly Wraith had already snapped.

"Don't help me! Ya' got that?! I can take care of myself... So stay outta my life!" Wraith yelled and took off...

They was a very LONG silence. Toros sat up feeling like at any moment he was gonna be sick... but then the ghostly form of his youngest son floated in front of him.

"Uh, if it makes up for anything... I know what you did, you only did to protect us... thank you... Dad." Altair said kindly... funny how a little kids words can make anyone feel better.

"Thanks Altair... Thank you." Toros said and went to pet his sons head... only to have his hand pass through him.

"I'm gonna get Kanaletto for this! He ruined a perfectly good father and son moment!" Altair growled angrily.

"Geeze I've never seen Wraith explode like that before..."Senel who along with Zane had been petting the fox creature noted then looked over at the group.

"We'll take you guys to the spare rooms, it's getting late and you guys gotta be tired." Senel said and motioned for the group to follow them...

"We'll pass," Kross said flatly. "We need to speak with Jezta..." He said and Toros nodded numbly and they walked off, while the others were led off by Silva, Zane and Senel.

**(Meanwhile)**

Kanaletto was somewhere in the deep forest part of _Haven... _To be more precise he sat on the edge of a high cliff, his wings folded around his body so that only his head was visable... his eyes stared emotionlessly at the landscape around him. He knew this place very well, and even after all these years, it had barely changed at all... nothing had really changed.

Not even the creature walking up behind him...

He didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.

"Hello Nimari... long time no see." he said as he turned around to glace at Nimari. Indeed this was Nimari, a beast goddess... and called a beast goddess for a very obvious reason.

Nimari... was a giant nine tailed fox...

Much like Silva's companion though she was at least 20 times bigger and she easily towered over Kanaletto. Her eyes were the same red color, and her fur was as white as freshly fallen snow and was thicker around her neck so it appeared she had a mane like a lion, she to had red streaks throughout her body, only they stretched across her eyes, down her snout, and around her nine massive tails, her paws each possesed lethal talons that could cut through zorgonic metal like it was paper, her teeth were sharp like razor blades, and each of her nine tails flowed behind her, a massive sword hung on her back... with a very impressive blade and a handle made out of silver completed with a precious opal in the center of the hilt, and she emitted a shining green aura...

"I didn't ever expect to see you return here..." Nimari said softly, her voice was like listening to a silver bell ringing clear on a misty night.

Kanaletto chuckled softly. "I didn't exactly plan on coming back here..."

"Setis told me you know..." Nimari growled. "That... you killed her... killed your own best friend... did you?"

Kanaletto shot up like a rocket his eyes blazing with an unfathomable rage. "HE LIED! I NEVER HURT HER! NEVER!" He roared clenching his fists in rage digging his nails into his palms causing a faint trickle of blood to seep from his hands. Nimari stood there like a statue staring at the smaller creature.

"I didn't believe him anyway..." Nimari said softly. "His heart was so enraged at the time that I was afraid that he might turn into a demon..."

Kanaletto went silent then turned his back to Nimari and once again folded his wings around his body and stared once again out at the landscape... and he was silent for a long time.

"Goros has returned." he said emotionlessly and Nimari sighed.

"I thought so... for many years now, I have sensed a growing dark energy spreading like a plague throughout the universe." Nimari said softly. Then all of a sudden a terrible squealing noise pierced the air like a knife... then the sound of heartless, cruel laughter emmiting from somwhere off in the distance... Nimari's ears went back in anger.

"They have returned yet again to hunt on my land!" Nimari growled baring her teeth in anger.

"I take it that they have been defiling your land." Kanaletto said as more terrible cries of wounded and dying animals where heard off in the distance. Nimari nodded gravely.

"Yes...They hunt for the skins and tails of my sons and daughters and their cubs... I am the mother of all my kind, I see them, I protect them, I love them..." Nimari whispered. "My envoy, Silva, his people usually regard my kind as good luck, and often my children become their pets, and are treated very well... but yet these twisted souls torture and kill my children... I will not allow it anymore."

"You must love your children very much." Kanaletto muttered glancing back at Nimari.

"Don't you know what love feels like... and that love comes with the undying need to protect whatever it is you care for, whether it be a child... or a mate." Nimari whispered.

Kanaletto was silent, then he glanced at the sky looking at the stars that shone down through the ships dome. "Maybe I do..." he whispered. "But that doesn't matter right now... right now, I must regain my strength so that I can kill Goros once and for all."

"Do you think you can?" Nimari asked. "The three of you combined wasn't enough to destroy him before... now you want to face him alone?"

"I have too..." he muttered. "You wouldn't understand my reason... but I have too..."

"I do understand your reason Kanaletto." Nimari said and shifted her tails slightly. Kanaletto looked at her horrified.

"You know?" he whispered, his voice was unmistakably frightened.

"I've always known... as have the others." Nimari whispered softly, and Kanaletto looked momentarily shocked... but the shock soon melted into a terrible sadness as he resumed looking at the nights sky.

"I knew that Setis knew... but I had no idea that she ever knew." He whispered softly, feeling like his heart was being slowly cut in half.

"Yes... Setis told her, hoping to turn her against you... but she didn't... she was indeed your real friend, never doubt that." Nimari said turning around to leave.

"Thank you, Nimari... maybe tonight I can dwell within good memories, in my dreams." Kanaletto said and brought his wings up to cover his head... and drifted off into a much needed sleep.

"You sleep now then, god of fire..." Nimari said glancing back at Kanaletto, but then focused her eyes upon the entrance to her forest.

"I have some hunting that must be done." she growled... and she disappeared into the forest.


	27. Secrets of Haven

**I'M SORRY I FORGOT TO MENTION, THIS STORY IS SET AFTER SILENT LIKE SPIRIT SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION!**

Chapter 27

Secrets of Haven

"And the next stop is... uh... oh." Senel chuckled but the hallway came to an end... and sadly Silva walked right into the wall and fell back on his butt.

"And it would appear we're out of rooms on the "safe" floor." Zane as he and Senel helped Silva up. The last people who needed rooms were Rain, Molly, Jordan, and Aikka.

"What do you mean by the "safe" floor?" Rain questioned.

"Regore and his goons tend to hang out on the other floors; not the safest places for you guys to be." Zane said solomenly.

Senel rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, so where exactly are these guys gonna bunk?" he questioned, but then an idea came to him, and he smiled a broad smile.

"What did I miss?" Wraith said appearing behind Senel making him jump in surprise...

"Holy Anavrin! Wraith don't do that! That's creepy!" Senel shivered, he hated when Wraith did that... when he moved like a ghost, it seriously creeped him out.

"Sorry." Wraith said and glanced at the fox creature, and then petted it on the head its nine tails wagged in different directions.

"Well here we are, the whole gang's back together again." Zane chuckled and leaned against the wall.

"Back to what you were saying earlier, where are my friends gonna stay?" Wraith asked and suddenly found himself being dragged by his arms quite forcfully by Senel and Zane... then in a matter of seconds found himself in a tight huddle with Zane, Senel, and Silva.

"What?" Wraith questioned confused as to what this was all about.

"Wraith, you gotta help us!" Zane whispered into Wraiths ear.

Wraith suddenly was very confused. "Help you? With what?"

"This is the closest we've ever gotten to actually getting a dates!" Senel said motioning to Rain and Molly. "And those two girls are really cute!"

"Amen to that bro." Zane agreed and they high fived.

It took a moment for this to really sink in... then it did... "Wha- No! No! No! NO!" Wraith yelled in shock. "Are you three out of your minds?! Molly is like my sister!"

"Okay, what about the Phyl, she's cute too?" Zane questioned.

"Yeah, I know she is really cut- wait NO! Don't you idiots mess with Rain!" Wraith roared... Silva suddenly looked at Wraith slyly.

"Hehehehe, Wraith's got a girlfriend!" Silva chuckled.

"Say that again and you will be in severe pain." Wraith warned and Silva chuckled nervously.

"Come on Wraith, you wouldn't hit your blind friend would ya?" Silva asked.

"You wanna' try me?" Wraith warned again and Silva sweatdroped and shook his head no.

"Now back to the problem at hand." Wraith said feeling a headache coming on. "Where are my friends gonna stay for the second time?" Senel rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"In all honesty Wraith, we don't have any idea where they'd be safe. With Regore being... Regore. It wouldn't exactly be safe for them on the other floors, it's not exactly safe for **us **on the other floors, the only place we can actually think of that they could stay would be... well, at our forest camp." Zane said rubbing the back of his head. Wraith glanced at the three of them and sighed in agrivation.

"Just don't do anything stupid." Wraith sighed... he knew that Silva, Senel, and Zane may be a little nuts; but they were really just a trio of harmless and good natured... idiots.

"Okay then; to the camp!" Silva said, turned around and walked straight into the wall...again... and fell flat on his butt... again. His nine tailed fox walked over and looked down at him and then licked his cheek. Silva's eyes narrowed angrily. "I really don't like trying to find my way around in these hallways! They're to small and narrow! Sounds and vibrations are all jumbeled together and I can't get a clear image!" Silva muttered as Wraith, Senel, and Zane helped him up.

"Are you guys ok?" Rain questioned and Wraith nodded yes.

"I've figured out where you guys can stay." Wraith said and Silva began walking off.

"Ok follow me I know where we're going." Silva said but started walking towards a wall again... only this time his nine tailed fox grabbed him by his cape, stopping him from walking into the wall... again. For a moment Silva looked confused, then he reached out and touched the wall in front of him. "Oh... uh... thanks Raja." Silva said, but the fox creature named Raja did not release him but began dragging him down one of the hallways... Everyone else just sweatdroped big time.

"Okayyy... I guess we're following Raja then." Senel noted kinda freaked out at that little show.

**(A little while later)**

"Well, here's our camp." Zane said just as Raja released Silva who turned to face him a rather annoyed look on his face.

"What was that for?" Silva asked as Raja laid down and seemed to go to sleep. "Don't get cute, which one of us is the boss again?" Silva questioned knowing that he was being gnired yet Raja made a sound that sounded like a strange mix between a bark, and a yip. Silva sweatdroped. "Yeah you alawys seem to think you're the leader don't you?... Why do I bother?" Silva questioned and sat down.

The trio's camp was actually really impressive. It was well concealed in a very lush area and right near the entrence to a very small cave which was packed with what looked like boxes and sacks filled with food... There were two hamocks strung from the trees that belonged to Senel and Zane, there was a blanket folded at the base of an ancient tree that seemed to be prefered by Silva, a fire pit that had been put out a while ago, and the entire area nearby was surrounded by thick forest, towering cliffs, and a waterfall... and above them was perhaps the clearest night sky Molly had ever seen, the stars were so bright it was almost as though she was looking up at an arrangement of diamonds and fireflies... It was truly beautiful.

"It may not be anything fancy, but it's home." Senel said as he went into the cave and rummaged around... then a few minutes later he came out carrying a few heavy sacks that were bigger than he was... Zane walked over and took a few of them from Senel... appearently they were really, really big sleeping bags, most likely made for Crogs. They handed them out to everyone and started to start a fire. And after a few moments a fire was blazing. But of course what's a campfire without the traditions... no matter who you are, where you are, what you are, or how you eat... nobody can resist the power of the almighty smore... it's a universal epidemic...

"With everything that's happened today... I need a good smore." Molly said finishing roasting her marshmallow and putting it on her gramcracker and chocolate. Yep, it tasted damn good too. Rain also was appearently enjoying herself as well finishing her second smore. Jordan however, touched his before it was cool and it burned his fingers and he nearly droped the marshmallow, but caught it and shoved it in his mouth... getting marshmallow goo all over his face... Aikka looked at him taking his mashmallow out of the fire and letting it cool.

"You should probibly think before you act a little more often Jordan." Aikka said... but suddenly noticed a very smug smile crawl across Jordan's face.

"Oh, you should not be the one to talk princy-boy, I at least had my marshmallow." Jordan chuckled. Aikka looked confused but when he brought his stick back his marshmallow was gone... Raja was sitting next to him his nine tails wagging in a playful manner and he looked mighty contented. Jordan burst out laughing but Aikka noticed that Raja began to sniff the air and then look at Jordan and trot over and wait for a moment until Jordan noticed his pressence... Jordan realised his face was still covered in marshmallow goo and said the words very appropriate for what happened.

"Oh... crap." And within a split second Raja had Jordan pinned and was licking the goo off his face... it was so Aikka's turn to crack up.

"Ahhh! Down Lassie! Fido! Whatever your name is! Quit it!" Jordan yelled practically getting licked to death by Raja. Wraith sighed and shook his head as Silva **(Who had a pretty good mental image of what was going on)** Senel and Zane burst out laughing at poor Jordan.

"Sorry we should have warned you, Raja loves marshmallows! We always have to make him his own whenever we make smores or else he'll steal ours!" Senel said once he managed to catch his breath after laughing so much and removed the marshmallow he'd been cooking and whistled getting Raja's attention and the fox got off Jordan **(Who's entire face was now completely covered in fox drool) **walked over and ate the marshmallow offered to him by Senel...seeming to be full now it walked over and laid down next to Silva who petted it's head affectionately and finished eating his smore.

Aikka looked at Senel with curiosity. "Senel, may I ask why your here? As far as I know of the Naurasian forces are not stationed out here." Senel blinked for a moment in surprise then smiled.

"I'm the only Naurasian on _Haven, _I'm here with Zane; we're brothers." Senel said but everyone who didn't kow them looked confused.

"You're brothers?" Aikka questioned. "You don't look like half breeds to me."

"We're not." Zane answered. "We may not be related throught blood, but it really doesn't matter we're still family." Zane said begining to eat his smore. Senel noticed the still slightly confused look from Aikka and thought it best to clear the matter up right away.

"When I was a baby, my Naurasian parents abandoned me in a dumpster on the Crog homeworld. Zane's parents came along and they found me, and took me in. Zane and I are both the same age so we were brought up together... they were our parents, whether mine through blood or not they were my parents too... but when we were kids they died in a terrible accident and we were left alone." Senel said his expression growing depressed... Zane also looked saddened as well but he continued the story.

"We lived on the streets for a few years, but when it looked like we were gonna starve to death we headed to the Rion' lore acadamy out of our desperation. That's were we met up with Wraith and Silva... Those had to be some of the best times in our 16 year old lives eh Senel?"

"Yep yep!" Senel said happily... then suddenly a terrible high-pitched wail rang through their ears making everyone jump in shock, accept Silva who suddenly looked really angry.

"Not again... it sounds like another animal just got caught in one of Regore's traps." Silva growled angrily and stood up. "I'll be back in a while; I gotta set it free before Regore and his friends get to it." Silva said and disappeared into the forest like he was a ghost... Raja followed him.

"Shouldn't one of you go with him? I mean he is blind, he might hurt himself." Jordan asked.

"No, he may not be able to see, but he is way better in the forests than we are." Zane said but noted the confused looks on everyone's face.

"Silva wasn't always blind... you see Silva is an orphan; his parents died when he was born. We don't really know to much about what happened to him before he showed up at the acadamy with a story similar to our own... that he came to get some food and shelter. Well, he was placed into our squad and we became friends. But Silva doesn't like to fight, he's very against fighting unless he absolutely needs too. Sadly our old instructor, Hunroh was a huge war monger and tormented Silva on a daily basis. He hated Silva because he didn't like to fight and he would work Silva until he droped to the ground in exhaustion..." Senel said and Wraith nodded.

"That bastard, he didn't even get what he deserved in the end." Wraith growled his eyes glowing faintly in his anger and his ears going jagged. "And yet it was because of that creep that Silva became blind..."

"Yeah... that was perhaps the most horrible thing I ever saw in my life... it still gives me nightmares." Zane said solomnly and Senel nodded.

"What led up to that accident wasn't fun to watch either." Senel said and he seemed to pale at the memory. "One night Hunroh called Silva out on the grounds to take his skills test... it was strange because Wraith, Zane, and I had already taken our skills test earlier that day; it was pretty standard push ups, pull ups, sit ups etc... and yet he said he had a "special" test for Silva. We didn't like the sound of that so I followed him...They were outside and there were two Kimaris, **(Raja's kind, the nine tailed fox creatures)** an adult female and her kit...the female's collar was tied to a nearby post... Hunroh said that it was time that Silva grew up and he petted the large females head and then..." Senel shuddered at the memory. "Then took his gun out and blew her brains out. I watched in horror as the females kit tried to run but Hunroh stepped on its tails and demanded that Silva kill the kit... Silva was completely horrified, but refused to kill the little kit... and Hunroh beat him for it."

"Then I had a few things to discuss with Hunroh for that..." Wraith growled in anger. "I broke his arm and fractured his collar bone in two places."

"Well, Silva then began to take good care of the fox kit for the next few weeks, and Hunroh seemed to back off for a bit... but then he suddenly assigned us to move some crates from a nearby power plant... it was strange at the time that he assigned each of us to different piles to move...We found out all to late what exactly it was we were moving... one of the boxes Silva had been carrying suddenly broke apart and doused his eyes with some sort of chemicals... I never heard anything ever scream in that kind of pain before... well we got him to the infermary... but there was nothing they could do to save Silva's eyes, he'd be blind for the rest of his life." Zane said sadly...

"That bastard! What kind of a heartless creature would do that to someone!" Rain growled angrily. "I better never meet this guy! Or I'll tear him limb from limb!"

"He's dead... he died in a bar fight the same day as Silva lost his sight... he was lucky, 'cause if we'd gotten a hold of him... he would have been in a lot more pain." Wraith growled angrily but looked saddened all of a sudden. "Silva didn't take being blind very well at first... he was so broken up on the inside that he locked himself up in his dorm room and wouldn't allow anyone to get near him. He was like that for months... but Silva's refusal to kill the Kimari kit and taking care of it before his accident... it had grown attached to him like a dear friend, and we don't know for certain but we think it in it's own way managed some sort of magic it's kind is known for... and gave him a second sight where it seems he can now faintly see auras and vibrations. He says it's like watching a radar but its pluse waves are silver and gives a clearer image. But the catch is he can't sense things very things very well in hallways because the pulse vibrations become all scrambled, he sees better out here in the forests that's why he likes it better out here... and somewhere along the lines he became envoy to Nimari the beast goddess... who lives in this ships forests. He and the kit became inseperable commrades stillto this day... Silva named him Raja because Raja means "The One Who Guides Lost Souls" in another language... Silva may not have taken to being blind at first, but now he says he's happy with the new life he has."

There was a long silence, everyone was now very tired after stuffing themselves with smores and listening to the trio's tales. Slowly members of the group dozed off until only Molly was awake sitting in her sleeping bag and looking up at the nights sky, the stars shone with a majestic and brilliant light... but inside her heart she couldn't shake this awful feeling... the light that came from those stars, it didn't feel right.

It felt almost as though the Heavens themselves were crying...

**(Elsewhere)**

A pair of wounded Kimari stood baring their fangs and their tails flailing out in all directions as four Crogs laughed at their struggles. Behind them three little fox kits huddeled in fear in the back of their den.

"Why does Reshnor want us to hunt these stupid beasts anyway? They aren't exactly challenging anymore." one of the Crogs asked to another one to his right.

"Our job is to draw Nimari out... while he steals that sacred sword from the Altar of Fire." the other one answered.

"The what?"

"The Altar of Fire, it's one of the two sacred shrines on the far end of the forest. According to the story the sword once belonged to one of the Trinity. Regore says it could kill anything... including Nimari."

"Oh yeah... why does he want to kill Nimari again?" the first one asked again. Another one sighed in agrivation.

"Because if he kills that fucking goddess he'll cut out her heart and consume it to spite her for her threats! And once a god or goddess's blood soaks the blade he'll be invicible... and that means he could kill Wraith!" the third one answered licking his dagger growing even more impatient with the first one.

"That would be a fight I'd wanna see! Two sacred weapons; a sword and those war talons going against each other in battle... it will be legendary!" he said and once again focused on the two Kimaris... but suddenly a terrible high pitched scream caused the three of them to wheel around... only to watch as the fourth member of their hunting party staggered foward a bloody stump where his head should have been. His headless body fell to the ground and the massive form of Nimari jumped on the headless body and began ripping huge chunks of bloody meat from the corpse, dying her powder white fur blood red.

"It's Nimari!" The first one roared as the beast goddess bore her massive fangs and snapped at him her red eyes blazing in rage and she lunged at him knocking the other two down with her massive tails. Then she tore through his armor as though it was paper. And then proceeded to rip his insides apart, and he died in a pain filled bloody gurgle. One of her nine tails then impaled one of the other two and then flung him aginst the side of the a boulder where his bones broke on contact... then his head was crushed under Nimari's paw... the last one of the Crogs took off like a bat outta hell towards the forest... Nimari grabbed her sword in her jaws and took off after him... within a few moments a spine chilling scream rang throughout the forest... and once again it became silent... Nimari returned to the pair of injured Kimari's... and with her power healed their terrible wounds... then glanced at the nights sky...knowing that soon, very soon a battles would soon be raging both here and elsewhere; and if what she feared came true...

Someone's very soul would be torn apart from an unspeakable curse... and that tears of ice would soon cover the land.


	28. Unclear Future

Chapter 28

Unclear Future

Captain Jezta sighed in aggravation and rubbed his forehead. "Do you two really expect me to believe everything you've just told me?" Jezta said looking from Kross to Toros disbelievingly.

Jezta was a Captain in the Crog army, he was built like Toros and Kross, and wore deep blood red armor that resembled Kross's armor though with no cape, and he had two large ears that seemed to droop just ever so slightly towards the ends. Jezta was well known and well respected throughout the entire Imperium, even though Toros and Kross and many other officers in the army outranked him he far surpassed them in seniority as he had been in the army for hundreds of years, and at least half of the army would abandon their posts in a heartbeat if Jezta ordered them to do something else… That's actually the reason Jezta was transferred out here to _Haven;_ because this power he had made many high ranking officials very uneasy… but the actual reason that so many warriors in the army would sooner obey Jezta than other commanders was because with the exception of Toros, Kross, and very few others, almost every other ranking official was appointed by Kairogon… they were all basically the most bloodthirsty, heartless, dishonorable, and insane creatures you'd ever meet... In fact the troops they led were supposedly just as equally twisted as they were…. And Jezta wasn't like that, he had a good heart and soul and really cared about his troops and often put their well being before certain orders; this was the only real reason he hadn't been promoted to a higher rank… and right now, Kross and Toros were in real desperate need of his help.

"Listen Jezta, this isn't exactly easy for us to accept either. But the facts remain unchanged… Toros is the rightful Emperor and Kairogon is up to something." Kross said and Jezta sighed again…

"Look… do you two have any idea what you're asking me to do?! You want me to organize over half of the Imperial army and lead a full scale onslaught on Kairogon's castle?! And the commanders and troops that answer directly to Kairogon?! In under 18 days?! It's not possible! And even if it was it would be a bloodbath!" Jezta yelled angrily.

"Jezta we're aware of the dangers of this… but you're the only one of us even halfway capable of this task; and I think that Kairogon… is trying to cause a second Cataclysm." Toros said flatly, a hushed silence lasted for a while… then Jezta looked at Toros questioningly.

"Toros… I am 497 years old… I may have been a little kid, but I remember that when our previous Emperor took his throne, he was marked in front of millions of onlookers, as is the custom… you weren't even at the ceremony! So explain how I can believe thi-" Jezta began but was cut off when Toros summoned the Guardian Wings… Jezta gaped at him lost for words.

"To answer your question, I wasn't marked during the ceremony because I was marked when I was 19… it isn't that hard to mark the chosen heir, all you have to do is massage their shoulders and summon the Wings of Light's power and it will be passed on to the next rightful Emperor… My father marked me in my sleep. When I discovered this I was in a blind rage, I never wanted the throne; and he knew it…" Toros muttered and the Guardian Wings were re-absorbed back into his body… Jezta just stared at him completely dumbstruck.

"Did Hinata ever find out?" Kross questioned and Toros nodded grimly

"When Wraith was 2… For years I'd covered the Marks of Light with paint and no one was the wiser… but one night I forgot to and she saw the marks… and confronted me about them the next day… and then I had no choice but to tell her." Toros whispered sadly. "I was so afraid that she'd hate me if she discovered I was royalty… but she didn't… she said she'd always love me whether I was the rightful heir to the throne or not… though I'll tell you, she really chewed my butt out about not telling her sooner."

"That sounds like the Hinata I knew." Another voice said coming out of nowhere making Jezta jump in slight shock as a female Crog came into the room. She was built very strong though wasn't nearly as bulky as the other Crogs in the room. She wore red armor with gold highlights around the sides and medium sized red and gold shoulder plates and a gold cape… though her armor was designed for comfort and was made to be big on her and the reason was very obvious for her belly was swollen in late pregnancy.

"Lieutenant Remea, I didn't know you were here." Kross said acknowledging her as she appeared like a ghost from the shadows. "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to know what is going on." Remea said crossing her arms. And Jezta suddenly cast her a worried glance.

"You should be resting." He said and Remea rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Don't worry so much… the baby isn't coming for a few more days." Remea chuckled. Remea was Jezta's lifemate, they'd been lifemates for 10 years and this would be their first child… Remea herself was a very powerful and feared commander in the army and was also referred to as "Blood Dance Remea" in the army since her specialty was using a pair of whips in battle and using them to slowly cleave flesh and blood from her enemy. But in all honesty she was actually a very nice person… and she had been very good friends with both Celia and Hinata when they were alive.

"So… you're the rightful Emperor then Toros… I would have never guessed seeing is how Hinata always beat you up when we were kids." Remea snickered but then her expression turned serious. "I am aware that Kairogon has to go… because of him millions have died and millions more are dying as we speak. We cannot go on existing like this… we need to put an end to his reign of darkness. General Kross, Colonel Toros you shall have the full support of the 400 troops under my command and currently positioned onboard the Ne'jis station in the Vangor quadrant."

"Thank you Remea… we're going to need all the support we can get." Kross said and Jezta rubbed his forehead.

"I'll see what I can do… but all I can say is don't expect too much." Jezta muttered but then glanced at Toros his expression grave. "We won't win… I'll tell you that right now."

"We don't have to defeat Kairogon's defenses… all we need to do is keep them busy… so I can kill my brother." Toros said emotionlessly. There was now another very long silence…

"Toros, suppose you do attempt to fight Kairogon… what will you do about Goros? You may be able to challenge your brother but there is no way you will be able to defeat a god!" Kross muttered and Toros looked at him stunned.

"I hadn't really thought that much about that… we'll have to as the fire god about that." Toros said and both Jezta and Remea looked confused.

"The fire god?" Jezta questioned.

"One of the Trinity… he seems to have an agenda of his own against Goros… he's somewhere on this ship, where exactly I don't know…we'll ask him his opinions later." Kross said and Jezta looked completely surprised, but then his expression became very tired.

"I better go make some coffee, this is gonna be a long night." Jezta muttered and Remea nodded but suddenly looked a little surprised and rubbed her stomach… another thing also known about Jezta was that he was naturally a worrier.

"Are you all right?" he questioned standing up as quick as a rocket and Remea just chuckled at her overprotective husband.

"Your baby just kicked me."

**_(Meanwhile at the camp)_**

Wraith woke up and sighed in aggravation. "Somebody please tell me I'm not becoming insomniac again." He mentally muttered, before he had met Rain and the others he had always had terrible insomnia and it made him almost constantly in a bad mood… he really didn't need that right now… he noticed that he was the only one awake and Silva had not returned yet… but he knew that Silva could handle himself better than Zane or Senel could. **(Who snored like a pair of foghorns by the way…)** he rolled onto his sides time after time in an attempt to get comfortable but it was in vain… finally fed up he walked away into the forest… but what Wraith didn't realize was that Rain had also been awake and watching him… she couldn't really deny it anymore she had a huge crush on Wraith. **(As though she had denied it to start with…) **And right now she felt this strange urge to follow him… it was almost like her heart was saying. _"The sweetest guy you've ever met is getting away! Move ya' idiot!"_ and Rain of course proceeded to follow Wraith into the forest. What was also kinda strange to Rain after a while was that she almost instinctively knew where Wraith was going. Almost like some strange force was guiding her… Weird huh?

After a while though Rain found herself looking off of the ledge of a **very **high cliff… it had to be at least a 700 foot drop straight down. If you didn't have wings you would undoubtedly go **_SPLAT_** if you fell off… not that she ever had to worry about that anymore. She looked around at the surrounding area. Even at night it was beautiful, fireflies would flicker from time to time, and the starlight illuminated everything with a shining silver glow. Then she saw Wraith, he was sitting on a large rock near the cliffs edge looking out at the landscape. And of course if you know Rain, you should know a little scheme was suddenly forming in her mind… slowly she began to sneak up behind Wraith moving as quietly as a church mouse, and drawing in a large breath, to scream like a banshee in his ears and spook him a little. She was now right behind him and-

"Don't even think about it." Wraith said startling her and making her choke and cough a little on the air she just inhaled.

"How'd you know I was behind you?" Rain asked amazed that he knew she had been behind him.

"Ears like mine don't miss much." He chuckled… and with six foot long ears Rain knew he wasn't kidding and she sat down next to him on the rock. And there was a long silence between the two of them as they gazed off into the distance. The view from this place allowed them to see for miles... Rain really didn't appreciate exactly how big this ship was until now... it truly was a breath taking sight.

"This place is really beautiful. Who would think that all this could exist on a space ship. " Rain said and Wraith nodded.

"It truly is a magnificent place." Wraith agreed looking off into the distance, and spending just as much time glancing at Rain from the corner of his eye. It's not like he hadn't known... he'd known for a while now. He had feelings for Rain...it was so strange to him because it was the first time he'd ever felt like this. He'd felt it the first time he'd ever met Rain, of course it had been just like a flicker... the kind of feeling you get when you take an instant liking too, but over time that feeling had grown into a powerful flame and now it was a blazing fire inside his heart... whatever this feeling was he liked it, it made him want to be near Rain. And it was not just that, Rain was funny, nice, and just outright fun to be around. But... well suppose that Rain was his lifemate... would she feel the same way about him?

"Um... Wraith?" Rain said getting his attention and bringing him back to reality.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think you're being a little hard on your father?" Rain asked nervously...the last thing in the world she wanted to do was irritate Wraith, but she just couldn't avoid asking him about this.

Wraith was silent for a moment and then he glanced up at the stars shining down on them through the ships dome. "I know I am... and now I know the truth about what happened to my mother, and why my father abandoned me and my little brother... I now know that everything that happened wasn't his fault... But I've done nothing but hate him for five long years. I can't just let it go, it's just not that simple for me Rain. Do you think that I don't want to make my peace with my demons? That I want to keep hating him forever? I don't... I really don't. I want to forgive him... but I know that it will take a lot of time for that to happen." Wraith said and Rain sighed and also looked up at the stars.

"Yeah... I just hope that my Dad forgives me for clocking him with a rock... the first time I see him in God knows how long and I greet him by throwing a rock at his head... not the best way to say "Hi Dad long time no see!" Rain said sighing.

"I don't know Rain I think it would have been crueler if you had hugged him... speaking from experience." Wraith chuckled.

"Hey!" Rain said and punched him playfully in the shoulder and the two of them looked out at the forest below them... Rain then sighed in slight embaressment. "You know Wraith... I never thanked you for saving my life."

Wraith looked at her a little confused. "You did say thank you to me Rain, and I told you before that you didn't need too."

"Yes I do need to thank you Wraith! And in more ways than one... you see Wraith, you're the first person to not look at me like I'm a freak... And you're also the only friend I've ever had in my whole life... I can't thank you enough for that Wraith..." Rain said and Wraith rolled his large gold eyes at her and sighed.

"Rain, you don't need to thank me for being your friend... You're one of the nicest people I've ever met in my whole life, and I'm honored to be considered your friend at that." Wraith said and looked into Rains eyes... those deep blue sapphire orbs, you could almost lose yourself in them... and then he realized that they were holding hands... if Wraith wasn't black, he'd be red by now.

Rain also if she wasn't black would also be red as well. She looked back at the sky and leaned her head against Wraiths shoulder, feeling very tired all of a sudden as did Wraith... they still continued to hold hands as sleep began to overtake them both at this point... but then Rain heard something strange... something unlike any sound that she had ever heard before... but then smiled upon realizing what it really was.

Wraith was purring.


	29. Another Problem

I'M SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION, RAJA WAS THE ONE THAT WAS WITH SILVA AT FIRST NOT NIMARI; AND I STATED THIS IN MY OTHER STORY GAURDIAN, THAT IF ANYONE WITH A D.A. ACCOUNT WOULD LIKE TO DRAW MY CHARACTERS FROM THIS STORY OR FROM GAURDIAN THEY ARE MORE THAN WELCOME TO! ALL I REQUEST IS THE CREDIT FOR INVENTING THE CHARACTERS OR SCENES OK

Chapter 29

Another Problem

Regore chuckled evilly as he and his three remaining friends Lizur, Tenlar, and Raej stepped into the old dilapidated temple that was also known as the Altar of Fire. In the center of the room was a large pedestal with a large sword sheathed in it. A hole in the ceiling allowed rays of starlight to pour into the room and bathe the sword with its pale light. The sword was undoubtedly very special and was crafted flawlessly its blade had obviously tasted battle many, many times, a twisted scar stretched from the center of the blade to its hilt, the hilt was rough and black with large red rubies that glittered like firey red stars. Regore smirked with triumph as he stepped into the moonlight area and grabbed the sword by the hilt.

"So, this is the sacred sword "BloodRain" then eh?" Regore said and with all his strength pulled the sword out of its stone sheath and letting the moonlight reflect from the ancient blade.

"It's a real beauty Regore." Lizur said as Regore started feeling it out with a few sword moves.

"So you got the sword… what's next? Tenlar asked lazily…

"Next… we must awaken this blades true power." Regore said gazing into the swords shining blade… the lust to spill blood was clearly reflected in his eyes.

"And how exactly do we do that?" Tenlar questioned in his same bored tone as before…

Regore suddenly started laughing as though what Tenlar had just said was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. "HAHAHAHA! How do we awaken its power? With freshly spilt blood of course!" Regore said with a snicker. Lizur threw his hands up in aggravation.

"Don't tell me we have to hunt any more Kimaris again!" he whined.

"No, we need stronger blood. Much stronger… we'll start by killing the other Crogs on board this ship… and then of course all of those inferior creatures that came on board earlier." Regore said simply as though the thought of killing, let alone his own kind didn't bother him at all… but it bothered Raej.

"Hold on Regore… hunting wild animals is fine, but I refuse to kill our own kind." Raej said… of all the Crogs in Regore's gang, he had the most morals.

Regore looked at Raej questioningly. "Is that so Raej?" he asked and Raej nodded.

"Hunting with you and your friends was fine…but I won't murder anyone in cold blood." Raej said and Regore chuckled… then slashed Raej across his stomach causing him to drop to the ground in agony, a pool of blood already forming around him.

"Shame Raej, you were one of the best hunters I've ever met… but you broke the golden rule… you dared to defy me… but since I'm in a bit of a hurry I'm just gonna let you lie here and die slowly." Regore laughed, and just to add insult to injury dipped his hand into the pool of Raej's blood and smeared it all over Raej's face…

"Come on, after we make a big enough slaughter party with his little friends, Wraith will undoubtedly show up… then his blood to shall stain my blade... and then I will take the legendary Astaris War Talons for myself!" Regore chuckled and he left with Lizur and Tenlar who were busy laughing at their fool of an ex-comrade who was withering in pain on the temple floor.

**(Meanwhile…)**

"_Everlight…"_

"_Everlight…"_

"_Everlight… open your eyes my little girl." A soft voice cooed into Everlight's ears. At first Everlight was hesitant… then slowly opened her eyes._

_And looked right into the soft eyes of her mother._

_Celia, Kross's lifemate, and Everlight's mother was there; cradling her little girl in her arms. Celia unlike Kross only had two ears but they were pretty big, she wore what closely resembled a white silk kimono with a red sash… the entire area around them was a strange swirling light blue mist._

_Everlight just stared for a moment in disbelief… then began to cry a little bit. "Mother?" she asked weakly. Celia nodded and hugged her little girl._

"_Yes my darling… I'm here." She whispered softly into her daughters ears. _

_Everlight began sobbing and hugged her mother. "Mommy! I've missed you so much! Daddy misses you so much to Mommy!" Everlight cried into her mothers shoulder. Celia sighed and hugged her daughter closer._

"_I've missed you to my little one. And your father, but I've always been watching over you both." Celia whispered softly… but then her soft eyes became serious._

"_Everlight, listen to me very carefully. You need to bring your human friend Molly to the Altar of Ice. You need to show her how to obtain the last of the Celestial Beads… the Spirit Beads." Celia said and Everlight looked at her mother confused._

"_The Altar of Ice? The same place I wandered into when I was little and got the Celestial Beads of Ice?" Everlight questioned and Celia nodded._

"_Yes… both the Celestial Beads of Ice and the Spirit Beads, were once powerful charms used by our goddess against Goros during the first Cataclysm. They still possess her great power to this day. Only those whom carry Anavrin's mark can control them… you and Molly." Celia said and Everlight bowed her head._

"_I can't control them Mommy…"Everlight said sadly but Celia just rubbed her daughter's ears affectionately._

"_I have faith in you Everlight. I know that you will learn to control them." Celia whispered and placed her daughter down. "And before I forget… Everlight, do not fear the Naurasian people… they are not to be blamed for my death."_

"_But Mommy they killed you, and hurt Daddy!" Everlight exclaimed and her mother kneeled down and petted her head gently._

"_If at anything I am grateful to the Naurasian's who killed me. My body had been poisoned by Kairogon and Goros. If I had died from that disease they placed upon me my soul would have been absorbed within them… the very Naurasian's that stole my life saved my soul." Celia said and Everlight was silent but nodded slightly._

"_Everlight… much now rides on you finding Molly and bringing her to the Altar… she must obtain the power of Anavrin. As we speak Regore, the enemy of Wraith has begun a slaughter on board Haven. And Goros and Kairogon are setting their own sinister plans in motion... they are trying to create a gateway to hell. If they are successful the rest of Goros's demon army will cross over into this world and everything will be damned for all eternity." Celia said and stood up and looked up. "Our goddess used her power to enable me to speak with you but her power is fading… I must leave you now my child."_

"_No! Don't go Mother!" Everlight yelled as the image of her Mother began to fade._

"_I'm sorry but I must go… tell your father I love him." Celia said and disappeared._

"_Mother!" Everlight yelled as the mist also began to vanish as well._

"_I love you my little one…" Celia's voice rang one last time through Everlight's ears before Everlight woke up._

**(Deep within the forests of _Haven_)**

Silva's ultra sensitive ears perked up at a very faint sound. At first he thought it was perhaps another Kimari… but when Raja began to growl he knew it was something else… he could tell it was alone, and weak for it kept staggering, just trying to keep walking. Silva crouched down not wanting his presence to be known until he could figure out what exactly was approaching him. Whatever it was staggered forward a few more feet then collapsed about three feet away from him.

"Ahh! D-Damn… you Re-g-gore! I g-gotta stop him before… he- ack!" a voice that was obviously in a great deal of pain started before it made a sicken sound like someone choking. Silva recognized the voice as Raej the Hunter. One of Regore's friends… what the hell happened to him?

"Raej?" Silva questioned… the strong scent of blood now hung in the area like an evil fog.

"S-Silva? (cough, cough, cough) Run d-damn it…" Raej yelled weakly as Silva approached him. Silva could sense that Raej was bleeding badly and was only alive because of his own will to live… he'd met Raej only a few times before at the same academy he and the others went to he was pretty quiet and kept to himself a lot, and he didn't go out of his way to torment people like Regore did, he was much more defensive than offensive, so he was not so bad compared to the rest of Regore's thugs… and he was definitely one of the best hunters there is. Hence his title Raej the Hunter.

"What the heck happened to you Raej?" Silva questioned and located the deep wound on his stomach, (it really was amazing he was still alive for the wound was almost exposing his internals)… and Silva removed his white cape and began tying it around Raej's wound hoping to stop the blood flow a little. Suddenly Raej grabbed Silva's shoulder getting his attention.

"Si-lva… run, f-find Wraith… Re-g-gore has… the-the BloodRain sword… he'll k-kill ev-everyone! Only Wraiths War T-Talons can stop… that sword! Ah! Anavrin it hurts!" Raej yelled as Silva tightened the make shift bandage… Then motioned for Raja.

"Take Raej to the infirmary and don't stop 'till you get there." Silva said placing Raej on Raja's back… Raja growled angrily at this.

"Just do it will ya? Sheesh he's not that heavy." Silva said and Raja took off. Silva couldn't help but feel a terrible cold chill now forming in his chest.

Everyone on board _Haven _was now in serious danger.


	30. True Light

MY SCHOOL IS EVIL! EVIL! EEEEEVVVVVIIILLLL! IT BLOCKED FANFICTION NET! WAHHHHH!!!! SO IN CASE IT AIN'T OBVIOUS, I'LL BE LUCKY IF I'M ABLE TO UPDATE ONCE EVERY FIVE WEEKS! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!

Chapter 30

True Light

"Wake up!" Silva's voice yelled so loudly that everybody within a three mile radius woke up… accept for poor Zane and Senel who slept thicker than the dead. Silva however knowing of the danger brewing had no time for their shenanigans and instinctivly knowing where their hammocks were drop kicked them both out of their hammocks causing them to hit the ground with heavy thuds.

"Not now mommy, just five more minutes…" they both snored out trying to get back to sleep.

"Wake up you two knuckle heads!" Silva roared loudly, successfully waking them both up now.

"What's wrong Silva?" Molly asked yawning

"All hell is about to break loose if we don't haul ass outta here!" Silva roared his voice was frantic, and completely petrified.

"That's what you said the last time they were serving chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast in the cafeteria Silva." Zane growled in annoyance and Silva glared angrily at him, his white eyes emitting a silver glow.

"Regore's finally lost it! He's stole the sacred sword BloodRain and he nearly killed Raej! And we'll all be next if we don't get moving!" Silva snapped, his tone indicating this was no joke.

"Wait… where's Wraith and Rain?" Molly asked looking around but not seeing them.

"Never mind them, I'll find them. The rest of you get the hell outta here while you still can!" Silva yelled again grabbed something from a nearby sack and disappeared into the forest once again.

"Aww hells bells! I knew something like this was gonna happen!" Zane muttered as he and Senel pushed forward ahead of the others, for the fact that they knew the terrain a helluv a lot better than everyone else did... but they didn't nessisarly know where they were going.

"What's so bad about this guy Regore stealing just some dumb old sword?" Jordan asked sleepily.

"BloodRain is a sword that was once wielded in battle by a god, if it's power is reactivated, it'll give it's weilder the power of a god! And since Regore's already not playing with a full deck, it is definitely a very bad thing!" Senel yelled back at him and then both he and Zane stopped in their tracks, fear clearly reflected in their eyes.

"Damn it, how far to the damn tunnels?!" Zane growled… but then he and Senel looked at each other…and mischevious looks appeared on their faces and they faced the group.

"Allow us to demonstrate our universally famous scouting technique!" Zane chuckled and Senel jumped onto his brother's arm and stood balanced in the palm of Zane's hand. Then with all his strength Zane threw Senel straight up. Senel soared straight up, past the tops of the tallest trees and looked around and managed to see the direction they needed to go… and started falling back to the ground.

"That way!!!!" he screamed… then did a faceplant in the ground because Zane forgot to catch him.

"Thanks for the catch bro…" Senel growled sarcastically and then lost consiousness.

"Sorry..." Zane said and picked up his unconsious brother, slung him over his shoulder and once again proceeded to lead the group deeper into _Haven's_ forests.

**(Meanwhile... with Wraith and Rain)**

Rain never actually fell asleep... it was more of a strange dream like state, restfull but not actually sleep. She found herself still in Wraiths strong arms... he was so kind... and cute... real cute. She had to admit that she had never been happier in her whole life; running away from her grandparents, going on this big adventure with Wraith and the others... geeze now that she thought about it her grandparents back on Earth would be wild if they ever found out she was with a Crog, one of the so called evil creatures bent on destroying the world... but she now knew better, Crogs were not bad at all... they just have a little problem with a psycho emperor with a talking scepter... kinda understandable... in a way.

Wraiths purring was so soft and soothing... and so relaxing. She kinda wished she never had to leave this spot, that she could stay right here in Wraiths strong arms and never leave...

"WAKE UP!" Silva's roaring voice rang through the air like a knife causing Rain to nearly have a heart attack and Wraith who had dosed off to snap awake and stare at his frantic blind friend.

"Silva what are you doing?!" Wraith demanded kinda pissed that Silva had started screaming like that for no appearent reason... but when he saw the look in his blind eyes he knew something was wrong. "What's happened Silva?" he demanded.

"Regore's gone nuts! He stole BloodRain and is now officially on the warpath! I sent Senel and Zane to take the other to our little hideout in the tunnels... Wraith he's coming after you..." Silva added nervously and Wraith went silent then lookedf atr Rain.

"Rain, listen to me very carefully... you need to find my father, and Kross. Tell them they better put a warning out to everyone that Regore's on a rampage and has stolen that damn sword... if Regore makes that swords power awaken its the end of everyone on board this ship..." Wraith said but Rain hesitated.

"Last time I checked, we're partners... and I'm not letting you get yourself killed by that nut job!" Rain growled.

"Don't worry Rain I'll be fine... please... others will die, you have to warn them... I'll take care of Regore." Wraith said and he flexed the War Talons... Silva shifted the bundel in his arms uncomfortably.

"Everyone needs to do their part... I may shun fighting, but even I know that there is no way around it." Silva said and unfurled a long black cloak and a mask... a mask that looked like the face of a Kimari... but seemed to resemble it in an ancient way. he quickly put it on his face and wraped himself in the black cloak... the wind seemed to stir and there was a small flash of green light that emitted from the black cloak and the mask... then Silva turned to face both Rain and Wraith.

...the wolf mask smiled bearing its large fangs, it had merged with Silva's face. From behind him a long furry tail had appeared, his white armor had merged to his body and had become fur, his Crog ears had grown even bigger, his hands lethal claws.

"The envoy of Nimari enjoys a few extra powers than others... so now I "Demon Fox Silva" will assist in whatever way I can... I'll take care of Regore's other goons..." he said and in this form he really looked menacing... his blind eyes were transfixed on Rain who looked at Wraith nervously then back at Silva.

"If you die Wraith I swear when I get to heaven I'll kill you again... and Silva, if you let anything happen to Waith I'll turn you into a throw-rug." and with that she transformed into her flight form and dissapeared. Silva shifted uncomfortably.

"I've got a strange feeling she wasn't kiddin Wraith." Silva said his now fox like form said his ears twitching.

"She wasn't kidding Silva..." Wraith said flatly and Silva chuckled to himself, his ability to faintly see auras had come in handy at this particular moment... before he woke them up... their auras had merged together into a single pure shining white light.

That only happened, when one had found their lifemate... their soul partner.

SORRY FOR THE CRUDDYNESS OF THIS CHAPTER THE NEXT WILL BE BETTER... I HOPE.


	31. Souls of Darkness

HEHEHEHE SCHOOL BLOCKS ON THE FRITZ SO I CAN UPDATE! AGAIN SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY ON UPDATES! AND SORRY ABOUT THE CRAPPYNESS OF THIS CHAPTER TOO…

Chapter 31

Souls of Darkness

"And now we give you the entrance to our top secret laboratory!" Zane said as he led the group into a large clearing Senel had regained his consciousness after a little bit…

"You guys are lucky, we very rarely have guests in our super-cool lab!" Senel chuckled…

"…Your super cool lab… is a rock…" Jordan said flatly. And it was true, the clearing which was completely empty… with the exception of a certain very large boulder. The duo's fun however seemed to have just begun. Senel snickered wickedly and took out what looked like some sort of key from his pocket and started looking at the rock, tapping it occasionally and then he kicked it hard and a panel popped out making everyone sweatdrop. Senel grinned triumphantly and inserted the key and turned it… a loud mechanical grinding sound was heard and then the rock slid off to the side revealing a large iron hatch which Zane quickly opened and climbed down. Senel made a motion for the others to follow also… at first no one moved but then gathering up her wits then Molly followed then she was quickly followed by both Jordan and Aikka.

There was nothing but darkness in the room. Then there was a little clicking sound and then light flooded the huge room. It was definitely occupied by Senel and Zane seeing is how there were empty cartons of food and sodas all over the floor and on a nearby table… the lab itself was huge, a few tanks filled made to look like lava lamps and a few other random things… such as fireworks, books, a few computers, **_(cough hand grenades cough sharp pointy objects cough)_** and a whole lot of monitors showing various points on the ship and what was taking place in those areas…thankfully there was also a first aid kit.

"How'd you guys build this place?" Molly asked in awe.

"We didn't. We found it, all this stuff was used by our military, but they lost interest in this place and abandoned it. So we took residence… it is also right near the laundry shoot, that's an added bonus." Zane said and he and Senel chuckled evilly.

"What is so great about a laundry shoot?" Aikka questioned, and Senel rubbed his hands together remembering some past victory.

"Ten stories up is Jezta and Remea's room, we climb up the laundry shoot and use their hot tub when they're not around." The duo high fived in remembrance of their victories, then they proceeded moving around the room fiddling with various monitors and computers.

"We're safe from Regore down here; he's never been able to find this place. But we better find out just where he is so we can warn people he's on the loose!" Zane said rapidly typing into a nearby computer. The monitors flickered from one place to another at a rapid rate Senel watched the monitors for any sign of Regore.

"Hold up Zane," Senel said as something flashed in front of one the monitors. "Roll it back one panel." And Zane rewound the image on that monitor… and an ominous sight greeted them. Dozens and dozens of slain creatures at least 8 Kimari's lay brutally slain six adults and two pups, their blood pooling around their mutilated bodies, creatures that looked like manta birds, large reptilian creatures that looked like over grown chameleons with the exception of four tails, and the massive teeth protruding from their limp jaws… but probably the worst of the worst, were the tiny limp dead forms…

Of numerous slain Jelly Bunnies…

There was a long silence. Molly stared at the carnage before her… how could anyone do such a terrible, disgusting thing? Then she noticed the evil demon looks on Senel and Zane…

"Those bastards! Why Jelly Bunnies?! Zane said in a dangerous voice.

"Those poor little squishies!" Senel growled as well. There was a long silence.

"REGORE MUST DIE!" The two of them roared in union at the top of their lungs.

"I agree…completely." Jordan growled through gritted teeth trying really, really, really hard not to lose his temper and roar just as loud as Senel and Zane. Seeing is how much he likes those little squishies.

"Wait… Oh Snap!" Senel said then typed something into the computer. In a matter of moments the camera adjusted itself and what looked like the entrance to an elevator appeared… It was already traveling to the upper areas… Regore was heading right for the civilian quarters! Senel and Zane looked at everyone there eyes were blank and terrified.

"Hell… is about to be unleashed…" Zane gulped.

"If Regore… gets to the civilian hub, there won't be anyone left for us to save!" Senel muttered. Then their expressions looked determined.

"We're just gonna have to stop him ourselves!" Senel growled angrily then opened a door crudely labeled "Weapons of Mass Destruction/ Laundry Room" but no sooner was the door opened then over a hundred Jelly Bunnies mauled him… having apparently taken up residence in the weapons/ laundry room. After a moment of difficulty Zane managed to pry all of the little blue bunnies off of Senel** (Jordan is in Heaven now…) **

"Now how did all you little guys get in here?" Senel asked… Just as the ghostly form of Altair floated out of the room closely followed by Everlight.

"Uh… my bad. I couldn't resist their overwhelming cuteness." The little ghost version of Altair chuckled innocently. "And Even as a ghost I can still crack any lock ever made with Everlight's help. Your secret lab is no different." Senel however looked confused.

"How'd you find our secret lab?!" Senel questioned, but Zane sighed.

"Remember, we brought him here when he was 3… remember the exploding lasagna incident?" Zane muttered and he, Senel, and Altair's disembodied spirit shuddered at that memory. Everlight however blinked and shrugged a little bit like it was no big deal... seeing is how that was probably no big deal for, seeing is how her father seemed to have a gift for making food explode…

"I told you after that incident we should child proof **and **ghost proof our security system…" Senel muttered sadly, as the Jelly Bunnies proceeded to take over their lab…

**(Meanwhile in Kairogon's castle)**

A sinister smile crept across Goros's face as he watched as three Crogs strapped down a fourth onto what looked like a dissecting table. Those three Crogs were nothing more than animated flesh… Goros had already consumed their souls and had animated their soulless flesh solely to do his and Kairogon's bidding. Kairogon held Goros upright by his spine, since after all Goros was unable to do that himself… the only thing he was good at was virtually being Kairogon's scepter. Kairogon was enjoying himself just as much as Goros. The dissecting table **(Since sadly that is pretty much what is…)** began to move so that the struggling Crog was now lying flat on his back… staring down at him was the most lethal looking machine he'd ever seen… large bloody saw blades and vice like claws adorned the machine… it was designed just for this… It hummed to life and its saws came down halfway… before starting up, the roar of the saw blade was only matched by the Crog's terrified screams.

"What are we harvesting from this one?" Goros questioned just as the saw contacted flesh and began to rip right through it in a pattern that removed muscle and tissue from the rib cage but not enough to killing the agonized creature… just exposing the ribcage and all the organs within.

"The ribs, the arms, muscle and cardiac tissues, and the soul of course." Kairogon chuckled just as the saw began to saw through the poor creatures arms.

"Is it nearly completed?" Goros pressed but Kairogon just snickered evilly.

"We need to fuse half of it together still… and there are still more parts that need to be harvested." Kairogon chuckled and Goros growled in agitation but Kairogon just watched in entertainment as the doomed Crog's head was sliced off by one of the saws… but just as this happened, Goros's demon eyes lit up and he drew in a long rattling breath… and not visible until it was to late… the unfortunate Crogs soul was drawn into his open mouth… consumed into Goros's being. But Goros swallowed discontented and glared at Kairogon.

"What is taking so damn long?!" Goros growled. Kairogon began walking towards the staircase that led to the upper levels as the claws and saws on the machine retracted and the soulless puppets began to root through the mutilated corpse for the needed materials.

"Patience my dear friend. Patience… soon you will have your new body but a few more days are required though." Kairogon said and Goros fell silent for a moment… his black eyes closing for a moment in deep thought.

"Perhaps… but if something should go wrong… there is something else that may also suffice." Goros mumbled and Kairogon stopped and glanced at him.

"You mean that godling? Kanaletto? Didn't we petrify him like the rest of that pathetic planet?" Kairogon questioned and Goros nodded.

"He escaped the petrification… and he may yet still prove worth to me." Goros chuckled his black eyes filled with dark intentions.

"Even though he put you in this pitiful state? I thought that you of all would crave his blood to be spilt, not an alliance." Goros chuckled at this.

"No, he hates me far too much to ever join me by will… That's fine with me though, and I'm not talking about him helping me directly… That little rat Setis, has already done a fine job of making his heart cold and filled with hatred. Hatred is what I feed on… anyone with anger in their heart can be manipulated… with a few pushes in the right direction that is." Goros said salivating.

"I sensed it when I saw him, a heart almost as dark and as cold as yours… yet held that annoying trait of love… for a certain goddess." Kairogon growled, his large ears flattening against his head in anger.

Goros growled angrily and bared his teeth. "Yes… that annoying bitch was the only thing that kept him from being what he really should have been…the living key to my ultimate weapon... Now of course he's flawed but I may be able to remedy that now, with of course the Eshariol comet nearing, and our other little project nearing completion… my armies will rise to serve me once again!" Goros said throwing his head back and roaring with cruel laughter.

"And to think that I actually had my doubts whether his heart could ever be manipulated… but oh well, I guess my blood runs thicker in his veins than I thought!" Goros said through his laughter… and through the screaming of another one of his countless victims…

To be continued…


	32. A New Mystery Named Namine

**I'M BACK! SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG FOR ME TO UPDATE, BUT WE'VE HAD A MAJOR FAMILY CRISIS THAT IS THANKFULLY UNDER CONTROL NOW... I DON'T KNOW HOW OFTEN I'LL GET TO UPDATING BUT I WILL UPDATE! AGAIN I'M SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT!**

**Chapter 32**

**A New Mystery Named Namine**

"Molly you need to come with me right now!" Everlight said getting strange glances from Aikka, Altair, and Jordan **(Who is holding at least 12 of the Jelly Bunnies not counting the one on his head) **Senel and Zane however were in their weapons room sorting out what weapons they were going to use against Regore and his thugs... They were way to involved in what they were doing and thus didn't pay any attention to the conversation at hand.

"Why? What's wrong Everlight?" Molly questioned concerned by the urgency in the young Crogs voice. But before Everlight could answer she was interrupted by Senel and Zane, **A)** coming out of their Weapons Room armed to the teeth with hand grenades, blades, laser blasters and various other high tech dangerous weaponry... **B)** They were grinning like madmen... **(Which in case it isn't obvious enough that is an infinitely a bad combo)** and Zane was carrying a little black book in his hand.

"We've just found our ultimate plan on how to defeat that bastard Regore!" Zane said proudly and Senel snickered evilly.

Altair sweatdroped. "Why do I have a bad feeling I already know what this plan of yours involves?" he asked nervously dreading the answer.

"If you mean that jar that was full to the brim with old eggs, dead fish, rotten meat, twelve freshly activated stink bombs, and various types of molds and mildews that we grew on those pieces of old bread for about six months beforehand, this same vile substance that we have kept in the same air tight jar and hid away about five years ago, you guessed right!" Zane chuckled... everyone sweatdroped at this. Altair's ears drooped... he knew it.

"Um… how's that gonna defeat this guy?" Jordan question skeptically. **(He's still covered in Jelly Bunnies LOL!!!) **

"Ever smell something** THAT **bad**?" **Senel chuckled evilly.

"I can honestly say I don't think anyone ever has." Eva sweatdroped really not wanting to think about where this was going…

"Where exactly did you stash this… concoction?" Aikka questioned and Senel smiled and strode over to one of the computers and started fiddling with it. Zane also started working with one of the nearby monitors making sure the others could see it clearly.

"You see, Captain Jezta and Lieutenant Remea aren't really that fond of us… don't have a clue why though. All we did was cause the biggest foodfight that _Haven _has ever seen." Senel muttered but got an awkward glance from Zane.

"I dunno Senel, I'd be pretty damn mad to if someone belted me with pudding that got into my ears." Zane muttered rubbing the back of his head and his ears drooped slightly.

Senel blinked then chuckled nervously. "Yeah… and maybe I shouldn't have belted Remea with that custard crème surprise pie… there's nothing scarier than a pregnant Crog woman on a warpath."

"I think that nothing would have pleased Jezta more than to see the two of us thrown into a pit of Nauurasian bloodslugs after that one..."

"Those things... are very nasty." Aikka mumbeled recalling an imparticularly painful memory from his childhood... finally the monotor showed the image of a laundry room... one of the dryers had a large out of order sign scribbled on it in Zanes handwrting.

"You think that after five years Jezta would have sent someone to fix it... its for all the best he didn't. That's where we hid our little stink bomb friend. Hehehe..." Senel snickered evily...guess what appears next on the screen? If you guess a repaiman you got it!

"Uh oh... Senel and Zane said in union as the poor Crog repairman opened the dryers door. Senel and Zane slowly began to go underneath a nearby table as though knowing what was about to happen. The unfortunate repairman looked slightly confused then pulled out a heavy looking black jar. **(Just for the record that jar used to be see through...) **

"He isn't... Aikka mumbled starting to look away. Just as the repair Crog twisted the jars lid off...

"He did.." Altair said sweatdroping...

**(10 seconds later...)**

"Wow... I know our military has developed some nasty stuff, but I never thought it was possible to melt the skin off something **that **quickly." Altair muttered looking at the screen with the now dead Crog in the still frame.

"Well we now know that your plan might've worked." Molly said trying to cheer up the disheartened duo who were now hudeling underneath a nearby computer table... just then an alarm went off and massive sttel doors blocked off the laundry room and its air vents from the rest of _Haven._

"I guess we managed to set the smog alarm off..." Zane muttered sadly as the thought of their plan going out the window like that... and now Jezta and Remea would so be on there cases now... and they killed the repairman.

"Will you guys listen to me now?!" Everlight growled getting everyones attention. She took a deep breath and started explaining as calmly as she could. "Molly you need to come with me! You need to get to the Alter of Ice to get your part of Anavrins magic blessing!

There was a long silent pause... before off to the side Senel twirled his finger upside his head in a circular motion as though to indicate that Everlight was nuts. But one thing that isn't that well known is that Everlight **hates **it when people think she's crazy. When she was younger other kids would bully her and say that she'd end up in an asylum some day... it alawys made her cry. But she knew that for her mothers sake she had to be strong! So she did something that any little kid would probibly do... pray.

_"Please make him stop that! I'm not crazy! Please let me be stronger for my mommy!"_ _Everlight mentally prayed... however the last thing she expected was an answer! The room suddenly seemed to freeze, like time itself had suddenly stopped. And even though Everlight was completely unaware of it, he crescent moon birthmark was glowing faintly and getting brighter and brighter by the second._

_"...mommy?" a strange new and yet oddly familiar voice suddenly asked. Everlight looked around for the source of this voice._

_"W-Who's there?" she asked timidly just as she was finally aware that her birthmark was glowing and just then the light seemed to detch itself from the birthmark and hover in front of Everlight... before taking on a physical form of its own._

_It was the form of a little girl that looked mostly like a human. She was the exact same size as Everlight and seem to have a small pair of Crogish looking ears sticking out from underneath her softly flowing long black hair, her skin was as pale and as flawless as a pearl. Her hands seemed a bit big for her but had sharp claws on the ends. She had a small pair of canines showing from the sides of her mouth. around her neck were what looked like soft grey feathers. Not mature feathers, but the soft fluffy ones you'd find on baby birds. Strangely enough, coming out of her back were what looked to be six arms length black extra limbs like small spiderlike limbs. She wore a small silky black dress, with a black bow tied into her long black hair... and she had a crescent moon birthmark under her left eye. She also seemed to be sleeping for her eyes were closed._

_"...mommy?" the little girl asked again causing Everlight to fall backwards in fear and shock, causing the other little girls eyes to open slowly. They were a bright lively magenta pink in color._

_"Oh, Hi! I'm Namine who are you?" Namine asked as Everlight nervously got to her feet._

_"I'm E-Everlight..." Everlight said still slightly spooked at Namine's rather abrupt entry..._

_"So... I'm inside you then eh?" Namine questioned her fangs bearing in a good natured sharp toothed smile._

_"Huh?" Everlight questioned totally lost._

_"Nevermind... you said you needed some help though right?" Namine questioned._

_"Well... I-" But before Everlight could continue, Namine poked her in the forehead with a finger... and read Everlight's mind._

_"Oh so you need help getting the girl with my sister Rukia's spirit inside her to the Alter of Ice place right?" Namine questioned. All Everlight could do was nod dumbly. Namine then glared at Senel who was frozen in the act of saying Everlight was nuts._

_"And you want him to stop that right?" And again was met with another dumbfounded nod._

_"No problem! I'll take care of this! You go to sleep now ok Everlight?" Namine giggled._

_"But I need to-" before Everlight could continue, Namine_ _walked up to her and poked her in the forehead yet again._

_"Sleep!" she said and there was a faint glow of her scarlet aura before Everlights eyes drooped closed and she fell down asleep. __Namine chuckled and watched as the flow of time started to catch up to her. _

_Look out guys, Namine's come out to play!_

**(Ok, to all those whom are lost at what just happened here, Everlights soul had just been temporarily overtaken by Namine's soul which resides inside of Everlights body. More precisely inside of her birthmark. The rest will be revealed in a later chapter... Please read and review!)**


	33. Authoress Note

_Um… Hi Everyone… I it has been years since I last updated this story. But to everyone who read my notice in my other story Guardian __**(Which has been taken down now… and may be re-written and re-posted at a later date)**__ you would understand why… to those who didn't read that notice allow me to explain myself…_

_Back when I first stopped updating this story, I had lost all interest in writing as some personal tragedies were taking place in my life… but now my interest in this particular story has been re-awakened. While I may not be continuing this fic directly as I have forgotten what I was originally planning for this…_

_I was thinking about posting a newer version, called 'Unlikely Adventure' which would hopefully be just as funny and as good as Unlikely Ally, Altair and the gang would all be there causing mischief and chaos in this new version…_

_But still, I want to ask for my readers opinion. Would you like me to get writing the newer version or should I just let the dead story lie?_

_Feedback is greatly appreciated!_


	34. Notice

Hello again to all of my readers;

I just wanted to make sure to that everyone was aware that the new rewritten version of Unlikely Ally is now up… Actually it's been up for a while now and I stupidly forgot to post this little note here. Hehe, my bad, sorry…

Well anyway I also wanted to say Thank you to everyone who still reads and enjoys this old story of mine and I hope that you all enjoy the new fic as well! ^_^


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